By SHUTTA CRUM
July, 2008
There is no substitute for good writing (Having “connections’ in the publishing world won’t help if the writing is not good.) The most useful thing you can do to push your publishing career forward is to hone your craft. [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
June, 2008
If you caught Part 1 of this posting a week or two ago, you know that librarians (and retired ones, as well) like to talk about their reference questions. In that posting I spoke of my favorite [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
June, 2008
If you hang out with librarians, or frequent parties with librarians, eventually the topic of discussion rolls around to one of two subjects; our most memorable patrons (in good and bad ways)... [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
May, 2008
I hope you all celebrated National Poetry Month (April) in creative ways. Here I offer a poem of mine for all writers who worry about those adverbs and adjectives. Enjoy!
by
Shut [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
May, 2008
Like a lot of writers I started out writing poetry at an early age. In the 70s and 80s I participated in poetry readings, guerilla poetry (“taking it to the streets.”), and I contributed to small literary presses. [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
April, 2008
“Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack, a crack in everything.
That’s how the light gets in.”
Leonard Cohen, from “Anthem.”
I’ve be [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
April, 2008
There has been a lot of talk lately about how important unstructured play is for children. I, for one, am glad to join in the chorus of those chanting, “Stand back, Mom and Dad!”
We need to let our k [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
April, 2008
How little it takes to make this writer truly happy! I have found Nirvana . . . or maybe, to be honest I should say, my back has found Nirvana.
Every March hundreds, if not thousands of authors take [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
March, 2008
The Perils of Pauline’s Prose
In the early 1990’s our house was broken into, and we were robbed. We live in the country and have no neighbors within sight of the house. Beautiful. However, we were a [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
March, 2008
I awoke this morning with that famous opening line from Daphne Du Maurier’s REBECCA in my drowsy head. I’m not sure why. I haven’t reread it for some time, nor have I seen the movie lately. [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
February, 2008
Shutta is my real first name and Crum is my real last (maiden) name. [My husband has a boring last name, so I kept Crum—what else goes with Shutta?] It is not an ethnic name, or derived from any language other than... [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
February, 2008
Right now, I find myself reading in the round. That is, reading a variety of translations of one title—in this case, Beowulf. (I’m not sure if this is the correct term for this type of reading . . . [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
January, 2008
I lay down my copy of Discover magazine, and think back to the many hours I spent stomping around barefooted in our vegetable garden this past summer. [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
January, 2008
Styx is old—not as ancient as the river, mind you, but old—19. That’s about 92 in human years! We’ve promised him a birthday party with all the trimmings (tuna cake and whipped cream frosting) if he [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
January, 2008
It used to be that the designations of the Anno Domini system for dating notational use was pretty much all there was—and there was a definite line between the BC and the AD portions. (Keeping in mind [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
December, 2007
A favorite quote of mine from G. K. Chesterton is, “Children are innocent and love justice, while we [adults] are wicked and prefer mercy."
I came across this quote while I was writing my firs [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
December, 2007
Recently, I taught a literary technique workshop for adult writers of poetry. At one point I stopped to ask this group of writers what a particular poem we were reading was about. [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
December, 2007
I’ve just returned from a week “down South” visiting schools and speaking at the Tennessee Association of School Librarians’ conference. What fun! These are folks after my own heart. [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
November, 2007
Recently I was interviewed for an online piece to accompany an adaptation of one of my books into a reader’s theater script. During that interview I reflected upon the difference between writing picture... [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
November, 2007
Recently an interesting question popped up on the Ask A Scientist Physics Archive. (I know. I must have been sleep-surfing!) Anyway, the question was “Is it possible to artificially distort [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
October, 2007
Yesterday I plowed through the mail that piled up while I was away in Ireland—research you know—ahem! (After all, one does need to get the smell, feel, sound, and taste (?) of a castle if writing about castles.
[read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
October, 2007
As an author, I do a lot of school visits. I thought you might be interested in a few of my favorite questions kids have asked me at school visits. [read more...]
By SHUTTA CRUM
September, 2007
Wow! I actually get to write my "Soundings" blog column for BIG UNIVERSE. I’m calling it Soundings II. (This is just so I don’t get myself confused.) How wonderful to be able to reach [read more...]
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