ideas thought fodder

Zombies: Come for the mayhem, stay for the social commentary

I just finished reading “World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War” by Max Brooks. The book was not on my list for the Year of Creative Reading, but I chose it in order to see how the author presented his story as oral histories. Working in the history field, one of our primary sources of information is oral history, so it was interesting to see how someone adapted this form to fiction.…

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ideas process writing

Improving Your Writing

There are loads of books, blog posts, and web articles about ways to improve your writing. Google just returned 152 million results to the search query “how to improve your writing.” 743,927** of these online articles are listicles: 5 Simple Ways to Improve Your Writing – http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2012/05/22/5-simple-ways-to-improve-your-writing/ 10 Quick Tips to Improve Your Writing – http://grammar.about.com/od/developingessays/a/quicktips.htm 21 Ways to Improve Your Writing – http://www.writingforward.com/better-writing/improve-your-writing 8 Simple Scientifically Proven Ways to Improve Your Writing – http://www.fastcompany.com/3023616/work-smart/8-simple-scientifically-proven-ways-to-improve-your-writing…

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art family

What to Do with Leftover Yarn

It started with an afghan. A zig-zag afghan in four colors of Bernat yarn. Of course, there was yarn left over. I could not let it go unused. It’s very soft yarn. In fun colors, especially that vibrant green. So, here’s what I did with the leftover vibrant green: But I still had yarn left in blue, gray, and light green. So, here’s how I used that: I knitted a birthday scarf for my son…

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