Month: March 2018

  • Through These Words, I Rise

    Through These Words, I Rise

    In order to rescatar mi lengua (rescue my language) from an anti-Spanish childhood (my white father had ordered Mamá not to speak to me in her native language when I was a child), I studied like a fiend. Every night, before moving to Nicaragua in 1985, I memorized thirty Spanish words a day. Before getting on the…

  • The Art of Fiction Writing, Part 2: You Must Dream

    Here I discuss writing how-to books, the ones I like in particular. I also talk about the writing process–what it’s like to dedicate your days to your story or poems. Hours up hours, you work until something in your brain clicks–the story comes alive in your skull. I also share with you one of my…

  • Emily McPeek: Painter, Teacher, Daughter. And Creator of My Logo.

    Emily McPeek: Painter, Teacher, Daughter. And Creator of My Logo.

    I just heard back from iTunes, they’ve accepted The Writing Bull Podcast into their ranks! I needed a logo when submitting to iTunes, so I turned to a great artist who just happens to be kin. Emily McPeek has done well for herself. Her paintings have been displayed in several venues in different countries, among…

  • The Art of Writing Fiction 1

    The Art of Writing Fiction 1

    So, you’ve got a great story that you want to tell. It’s all made up, complete fiction, and you’re ready and raring to hit the computer keys and crank out a three hundred page novel. Or a ten page short story. Or a novella of eighty, ninety, one hundred pages. You’ve got the story in…

  • Writing From the Classroom: Diana Rodriguez

    Writing From the Classroom: Diana Rodriguez

    Here are a few poems by Diana Rodriguez, senior at Mount St. Mary’s University in Los Angeles. I hear whispers of Plath in her lines. Poem 1 You gave up. And they asked why, buttercup? Perhaps it was because they asked too much of you or perhaps it was because of that snake of a…