Entries from June 2011
Jun. 29, 2011
Hemingway, 1923
Ernest Hemingway’s 1923 passport photo, now at the JFK Library in Boston.
Tags: Hemingway
Jun. 28, 2011
The Death of Print
The sales figures for April 2011 are in and the PW headline says it all: digital jumps, print plummets.
Tags: ebooks
Jun. 26, 2011
Leonardo, procrastinator
Leonardo da Vinci’s epic procrastination and the practical use of procrastination as a sign that your work (rather than yourself) may be dull.
Tags: Leonardo · On Writing · procrastination · writing tips
Jun. 24, 2011
Southie reacts to the capture of Whitey Bulger
Southie reacts to the capture of Whitey Bulger
Tags: video · Whitey Bulger
Jun. 22, 2011
Making books is fun!
A vintage children’s video from Encyclopedia Britannica on making books (1947)
Tags: video
Jun. 21, 2011
Mencken on great artists and virtuous men
Mencken: “No virtuous man … ever painted a picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing, or a book worth reading.”
Tags: Mencken · quotes for writers
Jun. 21, 2011
How to Tie Your Shoes
Terry Moore describes the proper way to tie your shoes (yes, you’ve been doing it wrong).
Tags: TED talks
Jun. 17, 2011
Front page
The Boston Globe reports on the Bruins winning the Stanley Cup in June 2011
Tags: Boston Globe · Bruins · hockey · newspapers
Jun. 14, 2011
Wings not included
Jun. 10, 2011
Think Quantity
Looking over the numbers of prolific artists and innovators reinforces the basic rule: Creativity is a function of the quantity of work produced.
Tags: creativity · On Writing · procrastination · writing tips
Jun. 9, 2011
Paul Rand for Ford
Proposed logo for Ford, designed by Paul Rand, 1966.
Tags: cars · Ford · graphic design · logos · minimalism · Paul Rand
Jun. 9, 2011
The minimalist’s business card
Paul Rand’s business card.
Tags: business cards · minimalism · Paul Rand
Jun. 8, 2011
Win an advance copy of “Defending Jacob”
For next couple of weeks, you can enter to win an advance copy of Defending Jacob.
Tags: Defending Jacob · promotions
Jun. 6, 2011
The creative cycle in a nutshell
A PowerPoint-esque chart by designer/illustrator Christoph Niemann perfectly captures the writing process.
Tags: bookfour · cartoons · creativity
Jun. 3, 2011
Wisdom
Book trailer for Andrew Zuckerman’s “Wisdom.”
Tags: Andrew Zuckerman · book trailers · video
Jun. 3, 2011
“And then I saw her…”
When I’m stuck — as I have been for some time now, trying to crack the plot of my next book, to “break” the story, as screenwriters say — I always look for older stories to use as templates. The writer David Lodge has a great term for this sort of literary model: “precursor texts” [...]
Tags: bookfour · film noir · Out of the Past · Robert Mitchum · video
Jun. 2, 2011
Orwell on Dickens
Two quotes pulled from Orwell’s classic essay on Dickens.
Tags: Charles Dickens · George Orwell
Jun. 2, 2011
Our golden age
The U.S. murder rate (homicides per 1,000 people) over time (chart).
Tags: homicide