Photography: Horse skull at National Museum of Natural History & pals

May 12, 2013

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WASHINGTON – Got to play with my wife’s Nikon – and her new 200 zoom – at the National Museum of Natural History on Saturday. Here’s my favorite non-family image from the trip. At least, I don’t think we’re related. And a couple others from the National Zoo. Love that place. The Smithsonian, those kids do a nice […]

Posted in: Community, Photography

Wisdom, Vol. IV: The theft of Ambrose Bierce-isms walks among us

May 7, 2013

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PORTSMOUTH, Va. – Another batch of emulations of entries in The Devil’s Dictionary. This was my main writing exercise last night, when I had a block of time to do a few of them. I like this exercise a lot. It makes me think about what words mean, what they mean in different contexts, and what they don’t […]

Posted in: Fiction, Poetry, Writing

Writing Craft, Vol. XV: Author and journalist Mike D’Orso on Pumping Granite coming to paperback (Part Two)

May 5, 2013

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NORFOLK, Va. – This is the second and final part of a conversation with author and journalist Mike D’Orso, whose book Pumping Granite chronicled a Barre, Vt., quarryman’s sexual awakening. Hey now. Beg your pardon. Misread my notes there. Pumping Granite (And Other Portraits of People at Play) [Texas Tech UP, 1994] is a collection of narrative sport-related journalism […]

Writing Craft, Vol. XV: Author and journalist Mike D’Orso on Pumping Granite coming to paperback (Part One)

May 3, 2013

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NORFOLK, Va. – Author and journalist Mike D’Orso was the subject of the first craft talk I wrote for this blog a couple years ago, when we discussed the great story “The Project and the Park.” It captures the housing project near Harbor Park as that sports venue opened, and it is only one of 45 […]

A brief look at the Boston Marathon bombings via media corrections

April 17, 2013

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PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Here are some of the published corrections or adjustments earned by media outlets covering the terrible bombings Monday at the Boston Marathon. This mostly focuses on the reporting about whether or not somebody was in custody. Sort of a big fact to get wrong. Some made the flub. Many reposted it. Who broke the […]

Posted in: Journalism, Writing

The year in review, such as it was

January 6, 2013

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PORTSMOUTH, Va. — This blog is two years old. This past year, due to work and school commitments, I scaled back on the frequency of posts. Here are some goals for the year ahead: The Belligerent Q&As and Craft Q&As — will remain, especially since that’s why I started the blog in the first place. I’ll […]

Posted in: Community

Fiction: Concessions

December 22, 2012

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UPDATED: Story is down.   PORTSMOUTH, Va. — To celebrate my recent graduation from the Old Dominion University MFA Creative Writing Program, I’m posting a (very) short story that I wrote while I was a student in the program. It didn’t make my thesis, but I still like the thing because it reminds me of home, […]

Posted in: Fiction, Writing
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