Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:02:38 +0000 Overwintering, San Juan Islands, Pacific Northwest, www.carolineallen.com After posting yesterday's blog Just listen to me, I couldn't stop thinking about all the people who refuse to listen to our stories. Example after example came to me. I work with a lot of clients who had difficult childhoods. Many have had trouble in writing groups because some of the members refused to listen. Even in writing…

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:49:28 +0000 www.carolineallen.com My primary care doctor is Czech. I had my yearly physical last week. The doctor is always interested in talking to me about writing. I was in a mad hurry because I had a life drawing session right afterwards, and I couldn't get out of his office for all the stories he wanted to tell me. Meanwhile, for weeks I've been doing a self-study…

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 12:22:29 +0000 London Reflections, Southbank, www.carolineallen.com I have a friend who's a journalist, a genius of a guy, who's writing a novel. I read parts of it and realized it was in the realm of a post-modern author I'd studied in school. I got the guy the book as a gift. I was amazed that as my friend opened his gift, his face fell. I asked him…

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 16:03:26 +0000 Traffic in Costa Rica, www.carolineallen.com When I speak to new or want-to-be writers about any successes I have had as a writer, whether as a journalist or a fiction writer, some will interrupt me, talk over me, change the subject. This often happens even after I have been deeply supportive of their writing. I understand that the subject makes them uncomfortable, that perhaps they wish…

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:39:38 +0000 More traffic in Costa Rica, www.carolineallen.com After receiving a few emails on yesterday's blog Give to Receive, I've decided to further explore the issue of support. First, why do we find it hard to congratulate success in others? We absolutely know in our souls that the more open and loving we are, the more that energy comes back to us. But still we close down.…

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:05:49 +0000 Dribble Doggie, painted by a 6th grader in a Lowell Public School, who swore up and down he wasn't an artist and had no artistic talent. He is and he does. I'm working on a project with middle schoolers in Lowell Public Schools in Massachusetts. It's my unenviable task to spend two 2-hour sessions with the kids and have a finished mural by the end…

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 20:59:39 +0000 Self portrait: When the Soul Feels Anorexic, acrylic on canvas, www.carolineallen.com A friend once accused me of hiding how hard things have been/are for me in my artistic process. I highlight the successes, rant at the small-mindedness of other people, but never really detail how hard it's been. At the very real risk of exposing my soft underbelly (especially in brutal New England), I'm going…

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:33:53 +0000 One of the best techniques I learned in journalism school and later as a practicing journalist was the ability to see a piece of writing as 'the' writing instead of 'my' writing. With fiction writers, I try to convey this technique for successful revision. If it's 'the' writing, you distance yourself, your likes and dislikes, from the piece of writing and see the writing as…

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:58:18 +0000 Found object sculpture, made of tree branches, and a burlap sack, www.carolineallen.com I've just picked up James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, the 'memoir' that caused such a fuss a few years ago, because it wasn't a memoir but a piece of fiction. If you don't know what I'm talking about, click here to read a Vanity Fair article on Frey, Oprah and the book.…

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:45:20 +0000 Doodle, www.carolineallen.com I posted this blog earlier today with a digital photo of verdant nature. After I finished the blog, my inner little girl artist mentioned in the blog below said it wasn't that she wanted me to hang up my 'professional' works of art around the house, she wanted me to hang the hundreds of doodles I make a week and usually throw away…