The Importance of Self-Renewal

Japanese koi, or brocaded carp, are beloved around the world for their lovely colors and peaceful disposition. Most ornamental ponds in Japan have a resident koi population, and the most attractive specimens can sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.   Koi are merely a species of carp, and the lovely colors we see in curated ponds are mostly the result of care and maintenance by attentive human breeders. Writing is much the same. Any human in possession of basic education can read and write. We make words, and tell stories, as a part of our daily lives. Ask any kindergarten child to

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Walking the (Writer’s) Sacred Mountain

On my recent trip to Japan, I visited Fushimi Inari Taisha, the primary Shinto shrine for worship of Inari Okami (one of the principal Shinto deities). I’ll write about that experience in more detail in the weeks to come, but today I’m riffing on the theme in a different way. On days like that, it seems we’ll never clear the bottom, or reach the rarefied air that other successful writers seem to enjoy. Even after publication, sometimes the writing path seems insurmountably steep, and the obstacles we thought we left behind us…well, they keep cropping up in unexpected places. There’s no view out from

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Seizing the Joy

I blog quite a bit about legal issues, seahorses, and the writing path. Most of those posts carry lessons…in no small part because my life is one long lesson-studded path (many of which, I don’t learn the first time through). Every once in a while, I notice other people’s lives on similar trajectories. And when I’m very fortunate, I get to share the happy parts, not just the troubling ones. Recently, I offered an author advice about dealing with a troublesome publisher. To my delight, the publisher voluntarily gave the author what we’d asked for–even though it wasn’t an industry-standard request. Last night, I

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The Value of A Second Set of Eyes**

**This post originally ran in May, 2011 (you can tell from the photos, the shots of my reef are not new). However, the message resonates as clearly today as it did back then, so I’m reloading it today: Over the weekend, my friend shot more photographs of my aquarium. She visits about once a month, and her fantastic images are the ones which appear on this blog. While shooting this time, she made an interesting comment. She said, “I like that you let me shoot and don’t just tell me what pictures to take.” An important life-lesson, and applicable to more than just

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