Out and about anyway

A person who has spent all day at home fooling around with car issues and general disorder is not really in a position to write a stellar blog post.  However, I have been catching up on my reading, and I have discovered some wonderful things I thought you might like to know about. 

Author going to the birds

Jerry Dennis is doing something completely original. He’s writing his newest book in public. Astonishing. His blog is a writer’s scrapbook of the things he’s gathering and musing over, along with some work-in-progress drafting—sort of like my mulch pile, but better.  Today’s post, Liquid Runs of Melody, is an absolutely perfect cusp-of-spring collection of bird lore.

For illustration, here are some singing snows down on the edge of Grand Traverse Bay, a lucky blind shot from yesterday’s walk:

Spring it is a comin' in, sing woe for the snooooow

Dance of the lithographs

Betty Beeby is deep in a new project and I am just going to give you a tiny hint.  Her work, which has been in books and on television and on a vast mural at the Straits of Mackinac, is going to be choreographed.  How many painters, illustrators, or other graphic artists can say that?

Miss Sadie is not at all surprised.  She is fond of Betty’s work.  She wishes there were a part for a spin-dancing terrier with a great soul.

Hope for the book

Last August Robert Bruce began to write 101 Books, a blog about reading Time Magazine‘s list of the 100 best books of fiction published in English since 1923. It is currently the third fastest-growing blog on WordPress. I have a theory about this. I think a lot of younger people like a challenge. They like to feel smart, and they figure the best way to get there is to exercize their brains. Go a little deeper. Become knowledgeable about their own cultural heritage. I don’t know how long it will last, this discovery of books worth reading precisely because they are challenging, but even one is worth doing. All the rest are gravy.

Finally, I have a cartoon for you, another lucky blind shot, cropped appropriately:

I say we make a break for it. But this time we both go the same direction, OK?