Hurrah for Helen!

Helen Mirren's wax likeness was unveiled at Mme. Tussaud's yesterday and the picture of her with the fake version was number one in gossip site Radaronline's Hot Photos.

I applaud the bold Dame Helen for the chutzpah to be totally hot at 65.


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Bold Teacher-Writers

Last week I taught my "Writing Powerful Stories" workshop on Ocracoke Island on the North Carolina Outer Banks.

The participants were public school teachers/guidance counselors/principals, etc. The sponsor was the NC Center for the Advancement of Teaching.

What's bold about this? For one, I, who am primarily a writer, was teaching teachers. And more striking, the courage and honesty of the teachers in writing their own powerful stories. They did good and brave work-- and weathered 30 instructional hours in just a few days.

We went on a couple of outings: one by boat to the long-abandoned town (with its restored one-room school) on nearby Portsmouth Island.

Here's some of the scenery: starting with the ferry taking me to my Ocracoke Island teaching assignment.










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A Week (Almost) on an Island

I'm getting ready to head off to Ocracoke on the NC Outer Banks to teach a writing class for five days for NCCAT. Very nice assignment, I know.

At the same time, teaching is the boldest thing I ever do. The most demanding of attentiveness. Writing is a piece of cake, by comparison. Public speaking is a walk in the park. (Pardon the cliches, please.) Teaching is serious stuff.

Ran across this comparison of writing and teaching from Parker J. Palmer, whom I've quoted here before:

"Writing is easy," someone once said. "You just sit down and open a vein." Teaching is an equally vulnerable act, performed, as it is, at the dangerous intersection of the public and the personal. To teach well, I must reveal things about which I care deeply-not the intimate details of my life, but subjects that I find crucial and compelling, that have helped shape who I am. The courage to teach is the courage to risk the judgment that comes when I expose my passions to public scrutiny."

So I'm getting my adrenaline cranked up--and packing my sunscreen. Will report back.

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Gandhi as Shy Guy

Gandhi, one of my often-mentioned heroes, is an encouraging example in part because of his rough start.

Prior to peacefully running the British out of India, he was a lawyer who was too cowed to speak up in court. He lost case after case. "He was a total failure," writes Paul Rogat Loeb in an AARP Bulletin piece adapted from his book Soul of a Citizen. Gandhi's Indian family "sent him off to South Africa, where he found his voice by challenging racial segregation."

It's a truism of public speaking that we lose any fear of it once what we have to say becomes more important than our personal performance.

"I love viewing Gandhi not as the master strategist of social change," Loeb writes, "but as someone who first was literally tongue-tied, shy and intimidated."

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Don't Forget to Look Up

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A Shocking Number

Just passed a thousand posts on Friday without even knowing it. That would be about three novels in length. Though, I must say my novels are more considered than my posts. Still, it does make me think. A thousand! Damn! Will have to cook up an appropriate celebration.

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Shear Boldness

Yesterday afternoon my writing group was called off, and instead of rushing back to my laptop, I went home and hit the garden.

Hit is the operative word. I did some serious pruning. For me, this is a bold move.

My general gardening philosophy is: if a thing wants to grow, I let it grow. This concept, put into practice, lends the place a certain straggly aura.

Yesterday, however, I got out the good clippers and restored all the edges, crisped up the paths. It looks great. The shrubs are looking perky and robust. And I'm very empowered.



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Yet Another Great Quote Sent in by Mamie

Live your life in such a way that when your feet hit the floor Satan
shudders and says, "Oh no, she's awake."
- unknown

(Mamie can be found at Can I Do It?)

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Older and Bolder

I find growing older, I'm increasingly bolder
And increasingly hard to subdue!
- author unknown

Contributed by quote maven Mamie of Can I Do It?

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My Writerly News!

Got me a new agent and I'm really happy with her. This is always a great moment in a writer's life. So I'm celebrating. And Husband Bob brought home hydrangeas.

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Take a Step Toward Your Dream

"Talk does not cook rice."

-Chinese Proverb, quoted from productivity guru David Allen's latest newsletter. (His mantra is Getting Things Done or GTD.)

I'm a great fan of talk myself. However, in most situations, the conversation (or the monologue) has to be followed by action for any "rice" to result.

Rice, I now realize, is a symbol of fertility and prosperity.

What have you been talking about lately that you haven't put on the burner? Set some rice to simmering now.

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"Brave Voices for the Ill"

My sister-in-law Ruth Sheehan, a truly bold writer, is a columnist for the local News & Observer. She has often used that space to champion better treatment for the mentally ill.

Recently she started a column saying: "It took a lot of guts to write this book." Which would have gotten my attention even if she weren't related to me.

The book Our Voices: First Person Accounts of Schizophrenia is written by five people who are in treatment. The idea is to get rid of some of the stigma of the illness by busting myths and showing what the experience is and the competence of some who have it. The five decided to use their real names. That was the second gutsy move after writing it.

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Bold in the Morning

Made a recent personal discovery: I have more courage in the morning. I don't mean the arduous moments of struggling to wake up, but instead after I get rolling. Then the world feels new, or newish, and I'm out in it.

Fatigue, on the other hand, does not make me bold. And that's probably just as well.

Have you observed any such patterns in yourself? This could be useful info for scheduling.

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Bold Basketball

Last night's national college men's (NCAA) championship was a contest in which neither side backed down or got rattled or gave less than a terrific performance.

An underdog team went up against a school that has won the title several times, but not in quite a few years.

An aging super-star coach competed against a young rising star coach.

Duke versus Butler reached mythic proportions.

Duke won, (my alma mater, as it happens) but only by a two-point basket and the game was still undecided in the last 13 seconds. And all involved played their parts with gumption (which is to say, a combo of dignity and fire.)

It was exciting and lovely to see, if you like basketball, as most people in my home state of North Carolina do.

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The New Year

It's Passover. It's Easter. It's spring.

I wish you refreshing newness of life and the strength of your roots and traditions.

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Bloom Where You Land

This little rock garden plant emerged between the front steps of my office building and has been blooming cheerily for about a week. Everyone is careful to step over it.

This is a good demonstration of the crack/flaw in an object being part of its charm. Remember the story of the cracked pot and "do your thing" whether you're perfect or not.

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Do What You Love

Dropping by my local library a week ago, I looked around toward the desk to say "hi" to my favorite librarian. I didn't see her and figured it wasn't her Sunday to work.

A few more steps and I came upon a picture of her, surrounded by fresh camellias from someone's yard. Joyce. That's the only name I knew her by. She'd died two days earlier, suddenly of a stroke at the age of 58.

Since then I've learned that she -- Joyce Bingham -- was a lot of people's favorite librarian. Many people looked around to say hello when they came in the door. Now there are notes around her picture acknowledging that: "...I never even knew your name..."

The obit in the News & Observer said she had lived a "vagabond life" settling finally here in Apex, North Carolina. Her philosophy: "Do what you love, Love what you do! Bloom where you are planted!" She certainly bloomed at the Eva Perry library.

Notice of the memorial service requested: "To reflect Joyce's spreading of sunshine to all who knew her, the family requests no black attire."

Do what you love, Love what you do. And don't delay getting around to it.

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Gutsy Obama

However you feel about the healthcare reform bill passed this week(and I'm heartily in favor), it's surely clear that Obama is a president who has stuck his neck out. Who bet the farm. Who put his eggs in one basket. And any of the other cliches that stand for high-risk persistence over a long haul in the face of stubborn obstacles.

And he succeeded.

Obama was my candidate. And, though I don't agree with everything he has done (the war business), I'm immensely proud of him. Especially for the courageous and pragmatic way he has pursued this legislation.

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Plastic Highways

Just ran across this item about repairing roads with garbage in Saathee, which is a magazine for Indians living in the Carolinas.

It doesn't sound as if the idea is entirely worked out. However, this is the kind of thinking we all need to be doing: using one problem as the solution to another problem, thus solving both. That's bold.

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Attention: Raleigh Writers and Other Creative Types

One of the five offices in the charming 1910 Raleigh house where I work has been transformed. The room or half the room can be rented by the week or the month, by a writer or anyone else needing a place to work quietly within a small creative community. Above you see Desk One in the room now referred to as A Room of One's Own, with a nod toward Virginia Woolf. Below are Desk Two and the central conference area, all beautifully appointed and awaiting the grace of your presence.





Currently the downstairs of the house is occupied by owner Carrie Knowles, writer and visual artist and US director of the Cross Currents Chamber Music Arts Festival. She has an office, a studio, and, in the large foyer, a gallery. Then there's me, my office for writing, reading manuscripts, and meeting with writer clients.

Upstairs, Lisa Finaldi, national campaigns director for Greenpeace, has her headquarters. Greenpeace is the environmental outfit best known for defending whales against whaling ships on the high seas.

Right now, a memoirist and novelist is at work in A Room of One's Own, but space will be coming available again.

In addition to the inspiring and interesting company in this edge-of-downtown Raleigh building, there's a kitchen with a microwave and fridge, a small lovely garden and deck in the back, a big front porch, a bathroom with a clawfoot tub, a security system, and safe street parking.

You can rent a desk for $50 a week, and keep quiet so the renter of the other desk stays happy. Or you can rent the whole room for $100 a week and talk on your cell to your heart's content. Or you and a friend or colleague can share the office. Utilities are included in the price.

It's a good place to get a lot done: finish your novel, meet a tough deadline, get your dissertation wrapped up, start a consulting business.

Here are a few more visuals of life here. And if you're interested in more info or taking a look, contact Carrie Knowles at: cjknowles@earthlink.net.

The July crepe myrtles at the curb out front:

Carrie setting up a show in the gallery:


Our creed, posted in the foyer. And that's my office at the end of the hall:

Again, for more info, contact Carrie Knowles at: cjknowles@earthlink.net.

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