by Carole Duff | Jul 17, 2017 | Local or Human Interest, Writing and Reading |
The air conditioning in the Rotunda’s Multipurpose Room at the University of Virginia was set to sub-zero. New arrivals, refugees from last week’s steam bath in Charlottesville, might have welcomed the chill. But those of us who’d stayed from the previous workshop in...
by Carole Duff | Jul 10, 2017 | Writing and Reading |
Last week, a rejection email showed up in my inbox. “Although I don’t find your essay right for our needs, I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to consider it,” the editor wrote. Nice Try but no Trophy. Submitting a piece for publication is like...
by Carole Duff | Jun 12, 2017 | Faith, Nature, Writing and Reading |
The instructor’s house nestled on a woodsy hill overlooking an expanse of lawn. Eight students gathered in her cozy family room, and she opened with an introduction game. Names and details changed—except mine. “Say your first name and something you like to do,” our...
by Carole Duff | May 29, 2017 | Dogs & Other Creatures, Faith, Local or Human Interest, Nature, Writing and Reading |
Driving home from class last Thursday night, I berated myself for being too little a “pantser” (writing by the seat of your pants) and too much a “plotter”—more accurately a plodder—when responding to in-class writing prompts. Though distracted, I approached the...
by Carole Duff | May 22, 2017 | Faith, Local or Human Interest, Writing and Reading |
So. Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) by Ann-Marie MacDonald. Two plays within a back-to-the-future play at the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton. Seat B3. In the opening scene, the protagonist, university assistant professor Constance Ledbelly, is writing her...
by Carole Duff | May 1, 2017 | Dogs & Other Creatures, Faith, Family, Local or Human Interest, Nature, Writing and Reading |
May Day. Not the parade of workers and weapons in Communist countries. Not the pre-Christian pagan fertility festival. Today is May Day, the secular celebration of spring. I remember pictures in old high school and college yearbooks of girls dancing around a maypole,...
