The Writing Life: reflections by a working writer. The Writing Life

Reflections of a working writer, a university screenwriting professor, and the editor of Oregon Literary Review.

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Charles Deemer

Editor,
Oregon Literary Review

MFA, Playwriting, University of Oregon

Writing faculty, Portland State University (part-time)

Retired playwright and screenwriter.
Active novelist, librettist and teacher.

Email: cdeemer(at)yahoo(dot)com

The eagle flies!

Links:

Literary archive

The Sextant Press

Personal home page

Electronic screenwriting tutorial

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Bookstore
Highlights:

Finalist, Oregon Book Award

Practical Screenwriting

Love At Ground Zero

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More books.


Blogs by (mostly) creative writers:

"Can We Talk About Me For A Change?"
Playwright Debra Neff Nathans

Inkygirl
Debbie Ridpath Ohi, a weblog for writers (resources)

Silliman's Blog
Ron Silliman, contemporary poetry and poetics

Maud Newton
literary links, amusements, politics, rants

Darren Barefoot
Technical and creative writing, theatre, Dublin

Rob's Writing Pains
Journey of a struggling writer.

Mad, Mad World
Cara Swann, fiction writer, journalist, "reflections on humanity, random news & my life."

Writeright
Random musings on a writer's life and times.

Flaskaland
Barbara Flaska's compilation of the best online articles about music and culture.

Write Of Way
Samantha Blackmon's written musings on writing (composition and rhetoric).

Alexander b. Craghead: blog
Writing, photography, and watercolors.

Rodney's Painted Pen
Rodney Bohen's daily commentary "on the wondrous two legged beast we fondly refer to as mankind." His pen runneth over.

Frustrated Writer
This one named Nicole.

scribble, scribble, scribble
Journalist Dale Keiger teaches nonfiction scribbling to undergraduate and graduate students at Johns Hopkins University.

The Unofficial Dave Barry Blog
The very one.

The Hive
The official blog of science fiction / horror author Terence West.

William Gibson Blog
Famed author of Neuromancer and Johnny Mnemonic: The Screenplay.

The Word Foundry
Joe Clifford Faust's "blog of a working writer: tracking writing projects, musings on the creative process, occasional side trips into music, media, politics, religion, etc."

A Writer's Diary
By Cynthia Harrison, who has the good sense to quote Virginia Woolf: "The truth is that writing is the profound pleasure and being read the superficial."

Bow. James Bow.
The journal of James Bow and his writing.

Ravenlike
Michael Montoure's weblog about writing, primarily horror and speculative fiction.

Globemix
By David Henry, "a poet's weblog from Aberdeen, Scotland."

Modem Noise
By Adrian Bedford, a "fledgling Pro SF Writer, living in Perth, Australia."

boynton
"A wry writerly blog named in honour of a minor character in a minor Shirley Temple film."

Real Writers Bounce
Holly Lisle's blog, "a novelist's roadmap through the art and ordeal of finding the damned words."

2020 Hindsight
By Susan.

downWrite creative
Phil Houtz's notes on the writing life.

Vivid: pieces from a writer's notebook
Blog of Canadian poet Erin Noteboom.

The Literary Saloon
The literary weblog at the complete review.

Rabbit Blog
The rabbit writes on popular culture.

This Girl's Calendar
Momoka writes short stories.

Twists & Turns
Musings by writer Michael Gates.

Plays and Musicals -- A Writer's Introspective
A blog by John D. Nugent - Composer, Playwright, and Artistic Director of the Johnson City Independent Theatre Company

The American Sentimentalist
"Never has any people endured its own tragedy with so little sense of the tragic." Essays by Mark W. Anderson.

Screenwriting By Blog
David C. Daniel writes a screenplay online. "I've decided to publish the process as a way to push myself through it. From concept to completion, it'll be here."

SeanAlonzo.com
Official site of occult fiction author Sean-Alonzo, exploring symbolism, alternative history, philosophy, secret societies and other areas of the esoteric tradition.

Crafty Screenwriting
Maunderings of Alex Epstein, tv scribe, about life, politics, and the tv show I'm co-creating.

Letters From The Home Front
The life of a writer, 21, home schooled, rural living.

Venal Scene
The blog of bite-sized plays inspired by the news (by Dan Trujillo).

'Plaint of the Playwright
Rob Matsushita, a playwright from Wisconsin, "whines a lot."

I Pity Da Fool!
Glenn's adventures in screenwriting.

Time In Tel-Aviv
Hebrew modern literature at its best, by Corinna Hasofferett.

Big Window
Robin Reagler's poetry blog.

John Baker's Blog
Author of the Sam Turner and Stone Lewis novels.

The Writing Life With Dorothy Thompson
What goes on during a writer's busy day?

The Rebel Housewife
Not just a housewife!

Barry's Personal Blog
A running commentary on writing and the writing life.

Bonnie Blog
Maintained by Bonnie Burton of grrl.com.

Writer's Blog.
By easywriter. "From the walls of caves to cyberspace."

Flogging the Quill
Pursuing the art and craft of compelling storytelling, by an editor, Ray Rhamey.

Man Bytes Hollywood
Sharing tools, strategies and resources for the screenwriter's journey.

Mad for the smell of paper
A writing journal.

The Writing Life
A blog by Katey Schultz.

It Beats Working 9-5
A screenwriting blog by a young Canadian screenwriter.

Stealing Heaven From The Lips Of God
Writer & Artist, Dee Rimbaud reflects upon politics, religion, art, poetry, the meaning of life, the nature of God and why toast always lands butter side down on carpets.

Robert Peake
Heart and Mind, Fully Engage ... a poet's website.

Sidestepping Real
By Ren Powell, poet, children’s writer, essayist and editor.

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The Writing Life...
"An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's."
J.D. Salinger

"All my best friends are writers and are dead."
A friend over beer, Berkeley, winter, 1959

"And it came to pass that all the stars in the firmament had ceased to shine. But how was anyone to know?"
The Half-Life Conspiracy

After October 31, 2006,
new posts are published at


The Writing Life II

(Posts archived here are from 01/10/03 - 10/31/06)

 
Tuesday, February 22, 2005  
News worth repeating
Some items in the press today. First, a story for those of us who bitch and moan as writers, about a guy who publishes his first book at 70 ...

By Borys Kit

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Late author F.X. Toole and screenwriter Paul Haggis were honored with the University of Southern California's Scripter Award Sunday for their roles in bringing to life the characters in the Clint Eastwood (news) film "Million Dollar Baby."

The Scripter, handed out for the past 17 years, is the only award that honors both the author and screenwriter for a film adaptation. Toole and Haggis were last month announced as the winners in a field that also included the writers of "Sideways," "The Door in the Floor," "The Bourne Supremacy" and "Friday Night Lights."

Toole -- the pen name of Jerry Boyd, who died in 2002 -- wrote the short story collection "Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner," and Haggis adapted one of the stories, "Million Dollar Baby," into the screenplay of the same name.

Toole's daughter, Erin Patricia Boyd, tearfully recounted the struggles he faced as a writer -- years of rejection slips, two failed marriages -- before having his first book "Rope Burns" published at age 70. He died at age 72.

And finally, more about "Sideways," my favorite movie of the year.



By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - When the clamor over the Oscars (news - web sites) dies down, the biggest winner could be the film that wins the fewest Academy Awards (news - web sites), and that may be the comedy "Sideways."

"Sideways," about two middle-aged men looking for love on a drunken vacation in California's wine country, is nominated for five Oscars including best film but is considered likely to win just the screenwriting award.

But apart from its possible victories at Sunday's Oscars ceremony, the critical acclaim and box office prowess of "Sideways" has put director Alexander Payne and writer Jim Taylor in the vanguard of younger filmmakers more excited by human stories than dazzling special effects or action.

Taylor told Reuters the most gratifying feeling from this year's awards season comes from the attention that low-budget "Sideways" has received from critics and fans amid all the big budget films that usually win awards and top ticket sales charts.

It has been named 2004's best film by critics in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, and won the Hollywood Foreign Press' Golden Globe award for best musical or comedy. [Emphasis mine] Its ticket sales stand at a hefty $54 million.

"People are really taking about ... the humanism of the film and whether there is a new trend in filmmaking. That's exciting because those are the kind of movies we love," Taylor said.

2/22/2005 10:49:00 AM | 3 comments

Comments:
I was recently reading an article on Stephen King, at the doctor's office, flipping through pages awaiting blood results, and they mentioned he had recently discovered an unpublished author in his late 60s or 70s too..and he has himself a deal now...hey, I don't feel so over the hill at 39 now
 
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There's an Oregon writer, Clyde somebody, who published his first novel in his 80s. This was a several decades ago. I believe he wrote a 2nd before he died.
 
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