Pin Loom Weaving To Go — book review

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About a year ago I received a request from Margaret Stump, author of Pin Loom Weaving, and her newest book, Pin Loom Weaving To Go. She wanted to write a blog post about my blog! She kindly let me review the post before she made it public. I made a couple of minor corrections and she published it.

Now I’m wondering if I need to do the same for her—I was asked by her publisher if I would review her new book.

Margaret Stump’s new release: Pin Loom Weaving To Go

It seems to me a book review is supposed to be my honest opinion. Right? If Meg (I hope she doesn’t mind if I call her that instead of Margaret which takes a lot longer to type) has suggestions, I welcome them. And if I’ve made mistakes, I’ll happily correct them. But I think I’ll write this review without adult supervision.

That said, I have to confess, I don’t feel entirely free to write my opinion. First of all, Meg will likely read this, and I wouldn’t for the world hurt her feelings. Second, her publisher will read it, the same publisher who asked me if I’m still interested in writing a book (though that’s looking kind of cloudy at the moment). I mean, can you see my position?

Nevertheless, while I’ll sincerely attempt to not trample feelings, I will express my opinion. (Caveat: it feels a little like I’m promoting my own stuff in this review. I don’t mean to; I’m the kind of person who likes to have links to things that are mentioned instead of making people go look it up for themselves.) Read More →

(Divine) Ideas

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“We but half express ourselves,
and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents.”
(from “Self Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson)

A week-and-a-half ago I wrote a post I could have called I Am a Writer, and said how I anticipated that embracing that fact would . . . well . . . make all my wildest dreams come true; the main wild dream being to escape immobilizing depression.

I mean, really, don’t you get sick of fighting it EV–ER–Y day?

Apparently writing isn’t the omni-cure I had hoped it would be. (It has its depressing side too.)

The other day I was skimming through my daily feed (think about that term for half a tick: “daily feed”) on Facebook. and saw a lovely face. She’s a painted drawing by Katie Kendrick, friend-and-artist (whose classes I’ve taken).

painted drawing by Katie Kendrick
(25 Feb 2017)

Something about her delicacy, wistfulness, the hint of wind (maybe she has a windswept mind as well) . . . . Also, the glints of light—particularly the one in her bouquet—said something to me.  “Whispering Hope,” maybe. I liked her and made inquiries. Katie meant to paint her, but I was graciously granted permission to purchase her as is. Read More →

The Theory of a Few Things—the pen is mightier than I

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A place to write, a stack of scratch paper, and a cupful of pens (and a dog–Polly in this case)

So, I have a theory.

A few theories.

Abstract

This past year is probably the most difficult I’ve gone through since I was diagnosed with depression.

Summary: Twenty years ago, I tried meds. They helped for a few months, then turned on me (which is not the same as Timothy Leary’s recommendation to be turned on by drugs; depressive episodes often result in my dropping out of just about everything though, so maybe they’re related after all). After the drugs went south, I got some alternative and effective help. For many years I lived a life almost free of the disease. But like cancer—does it really go away? In the past decade I gradually became accustomed to summer SAD, then autumn SAD, holiday SAD, Spring SAD. This year it was finally difficult to find a significant number of SAD-free hours almost every day.

Theory 1

It’s important to keep busy. Read More →

Adventures in Pin Loom Book Writing—the love of friends

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Do you consider yourself a neat and tidy person?

I grew up watching The Odd Couple on TV, with Felix the uptight neatnik and Oscar the grouchy slob. I like this photo because they’re both smiling. Sometimes they got along.

Jack Klugman and Tony Randall, 1970s television’s Odd Couple

Like most people, I suppose, I identified somewhere in the middle—not too neat, not too messy; just right. I think the show’s writers wanted us to like Oscar the best though. I certainly did. I grew up always liking Jack Klugman and not liking Tony Randall, didn’t matter what other productions they were in. And I seem to have become more Oscarish in my habits. Read More →