Dec 8, 2020 | Current Ned Note, Horror, On Books, On Writing, Past Notes
The holiday season sees a million variations on Charles Dickens’s classic A Christmas Carol, yet this marvelous supernatural tale all too often overshadows the ghostly echoes that permeate Dickens’s entire oeuvre. In John Irving’s book of personal essays, Saving...
Nov 6, 2020 | Current Ned Note, On Writing, Past Notes
Today, November 6, is the birthday of Oregon writer Brian Doyle. I’ve had the great pleasure of getting to know the writing of Brian Doyle this past year. I was introduced to his work by the wonderful and amazing Kirstin McAuley at the Oregon Episcopal...
Nov 2, 2020 | Current Ned Note, On Writing, Past Notes, Poetry
Invictus was the favorite poem of both American Civil Rights firebrand and revered Senator John Lewis, as well as Nelson Mandela, the long-imprisoned and finally triumphant President of South Africa. It seems appropriate on this date to re-read this poem. BY WILLIAM...
Oct 30, 2020 | Current Ned Note, On Writing, Past Notes, Poetry
A poem for this moment in our lives… (October 30, 2020) BY MAGGIE SMITH Life is short, though I keep this from my children. Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways, a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways I’ll keep from...
Oct 16, 2020 | Current Ned Note, Horror, On Writing, Past Notes
I found a thread on Reddit that asked this question: “What is the best horror story you can come up with in two sentences?” I posted the best ones I found, as well as one more scary tale I created on my own. See if you can figure out which one is mine! With Halloween...
Oct 1, 2020 | Current Ned Note, Horror, Past Notes
“October Country . . . that country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and mid-nights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars,...
