I’ve been thinking about characters and characterization, about the way a writer can build and populate their work with ink and paper people. About the tricks we use to make those people real for our readers. The foibles that need to be imbedded in them, the lexicons we design for them, the archetypes we use […]
Authorhood is a funny thing. Just over five and a half years ago, in December 2014, I wrote a novel. It wasn’t the first novel I started, or even the second or third. Nor was it the first or second or third novel I finished, and any author will tell you that it’s finishing a novel, […]
There are times for words and times for actions, times for art and music and protest. There are times to walk out into the world and say Today There Will Be Change, because change is good and evolution is powerful. There are times to hide. Times of fear. Times of distress and anger and, times […]
Warning, contains sweeping generalizations and graphic art. Mary Patterson (1828) J. Oliphant Recently, I came across the above image. A pencil sketch by John Oliphant of a young woman named Mary Patterson. The subject is nude, supine, and one of a long line of female artistic subjects laid in a posture that would be uncomfortable […]
And on the seventh week of isolation, I started wearing jewelry again. A watch, a necklace, two rings. The watch is a sister to the one my dad gave me when I started getting serious about running back in high school. The silver cross necklace was a birthday present from my grandmother the summer I […]
When I was six months old, my mom made a friend. And when I say made, I mean made. His name is Herman, he lives in a Pyrex bowl in one of her cabinets, eating flour every few days, and turning out consistent loaves of the best Amish friendship bread in the world every time […]
Fitzgerald Park, Cork, approx. 1:30pm March 18, 2020 In Defoe’s version of this story, the priests abandon their pulpits and congregations, fleeing to the isolation of country homes. In Shelley’s version, American refugees invade Ireland, and then Scotland, murdering and looting their way south to the gates of London, before the son of the last […]
Contains spoilers for Million Dollar Baby (2005), Mona Lisa Smile (2003), and Charlie’s Angels (2019) I love movie trailers. That two-minute hit of emotion, the music, the character-establishing jokes and ‘stinger’ as they go out. It’s a high that I have spent too many hours combing YouTube for. A well-made trailer is the film distilled. […]
The start of a year. The end of a decade. It seems I’m a little late marking the occasion, other writers and creators have done far more interesting and poignant things to show the change from 2019 to 2020. Among my favorites are Stephanie Burt’s piece on poetry for the new year in the Washington […]
Pieces of one of the costumes I will be modeling, should modeling happen. Photo credit to the loveliest Silver. A friend recently asked me to pose for some pictures. The friend is an artist, the pictures will be modeling the elaborate costumes that she builds. Costumes inspired by video games and comics, making […]
Jennifer deBie author 