Chris

  • Love and Magic

    Sometimes on a dreary day, there’s nothing better than escaping into a book with the perfect mix of magic and romance. Here are some titles to start with: The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia In the city of Loisail, Nina arrives for her first season among high society, but she struggles to control her telekinetic… Continue reading

  • Murder: What’s Age Got to Do With It?

    The beginning of autumn always makes me want to curl up with a good book and a steaming mug of tea and nothing is cozier to me than a cozy mystery. With protagonists ranging from “your average 30 something whose life has been upended and must return home” to (usually) “single women who inherit mysterious… Continue reading

  • Seattle Book Clubs Discuss Abortion

    We librarians often witness how life and literature interact, as topics of real world interest to our patrons swiftly show up in requests for reading material, and especially in titles for book clubs. One of the best things about such groups is how the focus on a book can help people to discuss a topic… Continue reading

  • What Happens When Poetry Propagates a Nation?

    Citizens, the month of harvest is here. Celebrate National Poetry Month. Here comes, once again, An American Sunrise. Arrived, once again, a proliferation of poetry; each poem The Winged Seed of a thousand thoughts. From whence do they come, these Words Like Thunder? Of course, from poets, those propagating Children of Grass who Forage for Earth… Continue reading

  • Jacob Lawrence’s American Struggle

    In March, the Seattle Art Museum will host a timely exhibition, Jacob Lawrence:  The American Struggle. Best known for his work The Migration Series, Lawrence set his sight on the American Revolution creating a series of 30 painted panels between 1954 and 1956, focusing on historical events occurring from 1775 to 1817. It is interesting… Continue reading

  • Thirty Names of Night

    Come December’s shortest days, there are, amongst us, those who relish Burning the Midnight Oil, who revel in every blue-black hour’s saturating presence.  These Night Bloomers, Know the Night, The Long Night, Faithful and Virtuous Night understand that as each day’s darkness lengthens its translucent filaments entwine with time’s endless line.  This is the story,… Continue reading

  • Wintering Over: Art in Shades of Dark and Light

    Winter, like life, comes in shades of dark and light. Herein lies the drama of an indispensable duo meant to be seen, in multitudes of splendor, in paintings photographs and drawings. Let us go into the season with an Invocation of Beauty seeking not, its Genesis but Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico and Antonio Berni’s Juanito and… Continue reading

  • Washington’s Undiscovered Feminists with Mayumi Tsutakawa

    On Dec. 5th, the Seattle Public Library presents a virtual program, Washington’s Undiscovered Feminists with Mayumi Tsutakawa, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage. It is about five woman warriors of the Pacific Northwest: pioneering photographer Imogen Cunningham; Black American jazz musician Ruby Bishop; Chinese American artist Priscilla Chong Jue; Leftist journalist Anna Louise… Continue reading

  • Toolkit for Tough Times: A Sheltering Place

    Happy Starts at Home.  These days, it can take a bit of doing to get to happy! For some it is, exactly, how to work with My Small Space and others, My Bedroom is an Office and Other Interior Design Dilemmas.  See what I mean? It takes work to get to that Clutter-Free Home and… Continue reading

  • Toolkit for Tough Times: Toughing it Out

    Remember the adage, “When the going gets tough the tough get going?” Well, can we all agree that the going has arrived?! These tough times call for some tenderizing measures, something to help in Calming the Rush of Panic with Creative Strength Training, for instance. As we move into this uncertain fall and winter season,… Continue reading

  • Working it Out: From Emancipation to Economic Independence

    After centuries of receiving no or minuscule compensation (by being hired out) for their labor, formerly enslaved people, at the stroke of a pen, were responsible for their own livelihood. Seamstresses, servants, cooks, carpenters, blacksmiths, wheelwrights and masons could ply their trade. Most, however, of this country’s enslaved workforce had been deployed to cultivate monocrops.… Continue reading

  • Write On!: Get Graphic! Go Comic!

    Are you drawn to drawing your own world? Do you picture rows of frames, imagine scenes, come up with your own cast of characters and play those scenes out in your mind? Is there, somewhere near, a messy pile of graphic novels or comic books that you have poured over a hundred times or more?… Continue reading

  • The Art of Protest: Artists Art Protest

    Between The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea, there are artists who step back, survey the temperature of the times, put their fingers on the pulse and paint, write, compose, all the while Regarding the Pain of Others. There are artists who take to the streets, join the ranks of The Resisters. They can… Continue reading

  • Write On!: Writers Writing Life

    You’ve read their work, admire their writing and anticipate reading their next book. Have you ever wondered, from whence did those words spring forth? Some readers are curious about the forces that give shape to a writer’s identity. They are intrigued about the circumstances that were foundational to the development of an author’s work. Continue reading

  • Write On!: Publish Your Writing

    Check! You did it, you’ve done the hardest part. You’ve taken an idea, a slither of an idea and honed it into a strong piece of writing. Now, you’re ready to send it out into the world. This brings you to another beginning. This beginning is just as crucial and just as important as completing… Continue reading

  • The Art of Protest: The Language, Music and Images of Civil Discontent

    Joining a protest is personal and a public event. People from all ages and all walks of life take to the streets calling for societal change. Throughout history worlds of people have marched, from handfuls to millions with voices raised, through cities and towns. When The People Speak, heads turn. Everybody is filled with a… Continue reading

  • Write On!: Get Moving, Write that Screenplay

    Do you wonder How Hollywood Does It? Are you intrigued by all the moving parts that are part and parcel of getting a film on the screen? From where you sit, gazing up at the final cut, are you one of the few people in the audience who even knows the screenwriter’s name? Every film… Continue reading

  • Write On! Crafting the Novel, Creating Imaginary Lives

    Write On! Crafting the Novel, Creating Imaginary Lives

    Let’s start at the beginning, in that place From Where You Dream, at the first flash of a place, a line or a face.  Start, precisely, there, Creating Characters as you continue to construct, in your mind, the Architecture of the Novel you will write. Ok, maybe, you have to start at that other beginning.… Continue reading