A Blog About Creativity
In between fetching pain pills and making me lunch, Gertrude watches me grimace every time I roll over. Or get up to go to the bathroom. Sneezing is the worst. “No more golf for you,” she says. I’m recovering ever-so-slowly from a bulging disk. … [Continue reading]
No one is expected to be squeaky-clean cradle to grave. As a psychologist at a university counseling center, I was privy to many regrets and misbehaviors, lies, secrets, and even some illegal acts. On a handful of occasions, young men confessed to … [Continue reading]
The muezzin lolls me out of a deep sleep with his plaintive call to prayer. It's 5:30 in the morning, pitch black but for a swath of light through the curtains. Two-wheeled carts are rumbling along the cobblestone walkway below. A moped whizzes … [Continue reading]
For months, I've been edging toward writing another blog post about musings on a recent golf lesson. It was going to be humorous with a message at the end about not being too self-critical. I wish I could feel good about writing that post. But the … [Continue reading]
I'd no sooner gotten in the cab from the airport to downtown Wellington, New Zealand, when the driver launched into a mini-lecture about the voracious stoat—a short-tailed weasel that has wreaked havoc on native species. Here in the US, we think … [Continue reading]
Fiction thrives on spectacle and deceit. We're intrigued by a protagonist who lies. The narcissist, whose egotism obscures alternative viewpoints, is greeted enthusiastically in the world of film and literature. We marvel at the sleight of hand, if … [Continue reading]
Here's a frightening piece of history I stumbled upon in the course of researching my second novel. Just one more example of why ignorance matters. In the 1950's, Joseph McCarthy's decade of reckless red-baiting led to a purging in the State … [Continue reading]
Gertrude keeps hounding me to write another blog post. "I'm busy," I tell her, obsessed with writing my next novel. It's about the power of charismatic figures to draw us in—and then poison our environs with rancor and distrust. It's … [Continue reading]
Elie Axelroth sat down with SLO New Times Arts Editor Ryah Cooley to talk about her novel, Thin Places, her recent National Indie Excellence Award, her writing process, and what she's working on now. … [Continue reading]
It's Sunday night and Gertrude is glued to the presidential debates. She refuses to cede control of the remote, captivated by all that mean-spirited, third grade bathroom talk and name calling. "It's turning your mind into a cesspool," I tell her. … [Continue reading]
