Support My Favorite Dilettante!

Support Helena’s Kickstarter project!

1 Write Way

On behalf of a dear friend, wonderful writer, and favorite dilettante, I ask that you drop whatever your doing (well, if you’re reading this on a laptop, you don’t want to literally drop it), and hop over to Helena Hann-Basquiat’s blog, in particular this post: A Very Unwelcome Swamp.  Helena’s friend and Kickstarter promoter has had the rather disgusting experience of a sewer line backing up into his basement.  I know, go ahead and say, “GROSS!”  Now that that’s out of your system, after you read Helena’s post, go over to Helena’s Kickstarter project at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jimsquires/memoirs-of-a-dilletante-volume-one and either contribute yourself (you can participate for as little as $1) and promote the bloody hell out of it.

If you’re not familiar with Helena’s writing (and I don’t know how on earth that could be possible), spend some time on her blog.  Her stories at once make you laugh and tug…

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Teaser Tuesday: Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Today’s teaser comes from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. I’ve seen many recommendations for this book, so I finally ordered it. To my delight, it arrived in the mail this morning. If you’re curious how this writing book received its odd title, here is the blurb about it from the back cover:

“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. [It] was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'”

I have a feeling this book will be every bit as good as I’ve heard it is. Here is an excerpt:

“Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve thought that there was something noble and mysterious about writing, about the people who could do it well, who could create a world as if they were little god and sorcerers. All my life I’ve felt that there was something magical about people who could get into other people’s minds and skin, who could take people like me out of ourselves and then take us back to ourselves.”

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!