Michelle Slatalla kicked-off 2009 with a The New York Times essay that catapulted me back into childhood days lived inside a book. In “I WISH I COULD READ LIKE A GIRL” Slatalla yearns to experience again the joy of childhood reading, of living for a time in someone else’s universe. She observes in her three daughters (ages 11, 17, and 19) the transition from “allow[ing] the novel to carry them so effortlessly from one place to another that for a time they truly don’t care about anything else” to shedding “the childhood gift of being able to suspend disbelief” as they become critical readers. I saw myself in Slatalla’s youngest child who “comes to the dinner table wearing the hollow-eyed, devotional expression of someone who has just glimpsed something wonderful in a distant land.” Slatalla reminds me that my goal as a writer is to create a story so engaging that young readers can live for a brief time inside my imagined universe. May 2009 be a good year for reading and writing.
Crossing the Col to Denver
Every weekday morning I look forward to finding a new word in my inbox. No, I don’t hunt treasure in my email messages. My daily word is delivered by A.Word.A.Day. Today’s word is “col”. From the French col and the Latin collum – both meaning “neck” – it is a term for a mountain pass. This week’s theme is words from geology and geography: archipelago, monadnock, shoal, and now col. My daily word message includes pronunciation, meaning, etymology, and a sample of current usage. I keep a file of the unique words I would like to use in my writing.
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