The weekly round up
Here’s a roundup up of what’s caught my eye in the world of journalism, books and writing: This McAllen library got some much-deserved web love from The Daily Good. It’s a fantastic redo of a vacant...
View ArticleIn search of an old friend, ‘The Wednesday Witch’
“The Wednesday Witch” by Ruth Chew. I used to loathe parting with books. If I read it, or intended to read it – no matter the decade - it had a permanent place on my shelves. Then I moved several...
View ArticleHoly X chromosome, book readers!
So I’ve been casually counting the X- and Y-chromosomes on our weekly books pages, just to see how women writers are faring. And when I say casually, I mean totally unscientific. Because my boyfriend...
View ArticleGoing for the gold in Olympics couch potatoing
You can check out newspaper front pages every day at the Newseum.org. Here is today’s Times of London, one of the papers featured today by Poynter. We cancelled our cable almost a year ago and hardly...
View ArticleI want one: The Little Free Library
Houston’s first Little Free Library, via SwampLot.com How cute is this? It’s little. It’s a library. It’s on the honor system. You bring a book, you take a book. You keep words circulating out in the...
View ArticleFound: The Little Free Library
Here’s the Little Free Library at Big Apple Bagels downtown. It’s cuter than this crappy photo, though. Ask, and you shall receive. I was just bemoaning the lack of Little Free Libraries in San...
View ArticleThirty days of thanks for procrastinators
A good friend of mine several years ago gave up complaining for Lent. She was an awesome, hilarious bitch-er of about things. Most of us doubted her ability to get all the way to Easter. Honestly, it...
View ArticleGood coffee, good food, good reads
Here’s an awful cell phone photo of the library at Cafe Tutti. Trust me, it looks better in person. I met a friend for lunch recently at a neighborhood spot I had no clue was in the neighborhood....
View ArticleMixtapes, where have you gone?
I miss mixtapes. I went through some old boxes over the holidays and discovered a stash of cassettes. Most were circa junior high: Book of Love. The Thompson Twins, The Cure, New Order. Much as I love...
View ArticleWelcome, interns. (If you can afford it)
It’s that time of year, when hopeful interns arrive in newsrooms around the country. I’ve been fortunate to get to work alongside some crazy-talented ones in recent years. But there’s been a lot...
View ArticleWhere are all the women in sports journalism?
Anita Martini, the first female sports reporter allowed in a major league locker room. (Photo from the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame, of which she is a member). Last year after rookie sports broadcaster...
View ArticleWriting tips from Susan Orlean
I adore fabulous people who admit that they suffer the same self-doubting crapola as the rest of us. Susan Orlean, author of many bestselling books and writer at the New Yorker, claims to have...
View ArticleJournalism training. Free!
I’m psyched this week to start two free journalism courses online. You can take them too. The first is a month-long Massive Open Online Course, or MOOC, from the Knight Center for Journalism in the...
View ArticleThe art of quiet
On the road somewhere in Zavala County. Quiet, quiet, quiet. Those desperate words drift through my mind. A lot. Usually when the kids are screaming that the other one hit them, touched them,...
View ArticleFamous writers on finding your path (and being young and stupid)
Mega-bestselling author Debbie Macomber at the San Antonio Express-News Book and Author Luncheon, which I crashed. (Photo by Kin Man Hui/San Antonio Express-News) Lunch usually consists of me at my...
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More Pages to Explore .....