if you're bored, you're not paying attention
Unfinished or quasi-finished prose that hasn’t been published elsewhere
I’m thinking about a storyline that has come up multiple times this summer: How the mere existence of AI sows distrust.
If I were pitching a news story or crafting a PR pitch relating to AI, I’d think about how to tie it into this unfolding broader storyline.… Story continues … “Storyline: Deepfakes and deep mistrust”
When searching for a name for this newsletter, I kept returning to “Storylines” because I felt like it reflected the essence of my work.
My favorite jobs have been ones where I help a client find their storylines and define them in a crisp, compelling, resonant way.… Story continues … “What is a storyline?”
It’s July, and things are moving slowly in my neighborhood.
The sun came up right on schedule this morning at 6:03. I know it happened, because I was there, though I didn’t see the sun itself until about ten minutes later, when it rose over the fogbank covering Hayward.… Story continues … “Don’t panic.”
I jumped into a writing career right out of college because I was jazzed about the potential for self-expression, and because I was getting hooked on the rush of seeing my work appear in print.
From the first cartoon I had published (in Cricket magazine, when I was 10 years old – I wrote about that formative experience here), to youthful letters to the editor of my local paper, to articles I wrote for the high school newspaper and, later, college publications: All of these instances of publication were moments of validation for little Dylan.… Story continues … “Embracing the Zen of collaborative writing”
In today’s writing circle, fellow writer Alicia asked me if I had just recently launched my newsletter.
“No,” I said, “I’ve been publishing it in one form or another for about 20 years.”
In fact, when I looked at the archive, I realized that I’ve been publishing a newsletter for over 25 years.… Story continues … “25 things I learned in 25 years of newsletter publishing”
Today’s solar eclipse was far from total where I was. In Northern California, the Moon blocked at most about one-third of the Sun. Of course, I watched it, with Karen, sitting in our driveway with a colander (to make a constellation of pinhole-camera crescent Sun images on the ground).… Story continues … “Notes from a totality”
You know that feeling when you’re staring at a brand-new Google Doc, and it’s completely white except for the blinking cursor in the upper left?
Sometimes this blankness is an open field of possibility, but more often than not, it’s stress-inducing.… Story continues … “Avoiding that ‘untitled document’ feeling”
Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs by Camilla Townsend
Camilla Townsend has pulled off a remarkable magic trick in this book, reconstituting the Mexica empire with an amazing level of detail and sensitivity. It makes the Aztecs feel like a real people, with a vibrant and complex culture, instead of the cartoon figures that I pictured them as before.… Story continues … “Fifth Sun”
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
It took many months for me to finish reading this book, as I could only manage it in small doses. Dillard writes with an intensity level that starts around 7 or 8 and cranks up to 11 by the end of each chapter, and as thrilling as that is, it can also be difficult to bear.… Story continues … “The tree with the lights in it”
Love and Fear: Stories from a Hospice Chaplain by Renshin Bunce
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A Zen Buddhist chaplain’s memoir, with many stories shining light on what it means to die, and some of the many different ways it can happen.… Story continues … “Zen, death, love, and an exorcism.”