Category Archives: Writing

BOOK: “Kindred Spirits” by Edward C. Sellner

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Kindred Spirits: Thomas Merton, Jack Kerouac, and ZenKindred Spirits: Thomas Merton, Jack Kerouac, and Zen by Edward C. Sellner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site — Monkfish Books

Release Date: July 28,2026

This book intertwines the biographies of two prominent 2oth century American authors, Beat novelist Jack Kerouac and Trappist monk Thomas Merton. Besides the two writers’ general interest in Eastern philosophy and mysticism and the fact that they had broadly overlapping lifespans, I wouldn’t have placed them in the same basket (despite having read works by each and found both writers’ works enjoyable – though in distinct ways.) However, Sellner dives down into other points of commonality — e.g. Columbia University educated, lifelong Catholics, love of drink, ladies’ men (at some point, at least,) desire for a hermetic existence, etc. Of course, another important commonality was dying young, Kerouac at 47 and Merton at 53.

This book is a fascinating look at two authors who forever changed American perception of Zen Buddhism and Eastern philosophy more generally, though who did it through the lens of Catholicism. At its heart, however, it’s the tale of the struggles of two men to find something, something elusive yet for which they each felt a strong compulsion, something which even successes only left them hungering for more.

If you’re interested in the lives of writers, this book is an excellent read and I’d highly recommend it. Regardless of what you might feel about the connective tissue between them, both of these writers had an interesting life.

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PROMPT: Lose Yourself

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Daily writing prompt
What activities do you lose yourself in?
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Reading, walking, writing, swimming, thinking, and epic rap battles. You’ve only got one shot…

PROMPT: Autobiography

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Daily writing prompt
You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?
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“And that’s how you do that!”

(I’m told that in medias res is the ideal narrative approach for memoirs.)

BOOK: “Forty-Three Ways of Looking at Hemingway” by Jeffrey Meyers

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Forty-Three Ways of Looking at HemingwayForty-Three Ways of Looking at Hemingway by Jeffrey Meyers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Website – LSU Press

I enjoyed this approach to biography. Instead of telling Hemingway’s life story chronologically or even via some other form of overarching arc, Meyers gives us forty-three chapters that each shine a light on a different facet of Hemingway. In many cases, these facets are Hemingway’s relationships to other people: writers, artists, wives, and other personalities. In other cases, the facets are events or concepts, such as his suicide, war, achievements, etc.

This approach can, on occasion, lead to repetition, but I find repetition that is not overbearing to be useful in taking in key information.

If you are interested in what made Hemingway tick, I’d highly recommend that you read this book.

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PROMPT: Perfect Space

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Daily writing prompt
You get to build your perfect space for reading and writing. What’s it like?
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Quiet, simple, and in other ways not distracting.

BOOK: “The Serious Guide to Joke Writing” by Sally Holloway

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The Serious Guide to Joke Writing: How to Say Something Funny about AnythingThe Serious Guide to Joke Writing: How to Say Something Funny about Anything by Sally Holloway
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Google Books Page

This book presents a textual version of the author’s joke writing seminar. It offers a few techniques for joke writing that are informed by the premises that: 1.) jokes exist out in the world for one to find — rather than to create; 2.) Anyone who is funny with his or her friends can be a funny joke writer, BUT not without effort. That effort comes in the form of training oneself to look at words and phrases in unconventional ways and in applying (largely mechanical) processes to coax or wheedle the jokes out of the ether. I say “largely mechanical” because there is a chapter on stream-of-consciousness joke writing, but the heart of the book is a process called joke-web building that is a step-by-step approach to finding humor wherever it may hide.

The book alternates practical and “theoretical” chapters. The “theoretical” chapters are mostly about the psychology that gets in one’s way as a joke writer and the ways around it. That is, those parts deal with the value of breaks and the need to manage anxiety. The practical chapters explain the procedures and have Q&A style troubleshooting sections in addition to a description of the process.

I found the book to be interesting and a quick read. Some of the procedures seem a bit tedious, but they do produce results. It may be possible to streamline them to one’s own situation.

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PROMPT: Writing

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Daily writing prompt
What do you enjoy most about writing?
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EPIPHANIES.

But, if you think about it, writing is miraculous. In the scheme of gifts that nature grants, it is way out beyond left field. Encoding ideas and images in simple characters in a way that can evoke emotional or cognitive responses in readers is kind of a superpower. (As is reading.)

PROMPT: 30 Things

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Daily writing prompt
List 30 things that make you happy.
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1.) love; 2.) a glorious turn of phrase; 3.) discovery; 4.) walking; 5.) swimming; 6.) stumbling upon an interesting and / or novel idea; 7.) movement; 8.) travel; 9.) street food; 10.) quiet; 11.) health; 12.) recognition that when things are at their very worst, they must get better — because everything is impermanent; 13.) an intense stretch; 14.) Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass;” 15.) undiscovered country; 16.) the hanging moment; 17.) a mystery-laden world; 18.) a moment of flow; 19.) a mountain path; 20.) a clear stream; 21.) the way of non-adversariality; 22.) a thing stripped to its simplest form; 23.) the moment breath turns the tide; 24.) animals being animals; 25.) a brief instant of free fall; 26.) the recognition that something that used to cause me angst or fear no longer does; 27.) when body, movement, and the world fall into alignment; 28.) first contact with someplace / something new; 29.) connection; 30.) the first sign that the struggle is paying off.

Wen Fu 10 “Originality” [文赋十] by Lu Ji [陆机] [w/Audio]

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Splendid thoughts arise from joined words --
   Lucidity is awakened:
 Luminous like adorned brocade,
 Doleful as a string serenade.
 But if crib suspicions aren't killed,
 It'll be just one more pulp piece.
 Though you may be these word's weaver--
   Some ancestor, the prime conceiver. 
 You must be just and rise above,
 Though it kills words you've grown to love.

The original lines in Simplified Chinese:

或藻思绮合，清丽千眠。
炳若缛绣，凄若繁弦。
必所拟之不殊，乃暗合乎曩篇。
虽杼轴于予怀，怵佗人之我先。
苟伤廉而愆义，亦虽爱而必捐。

Wen Fu 8 [文赋 八] “Edits” by Lu Ji [陆机] [w/ Audio]

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Maybe the first lines constrain the last;
  Maybe ends insist on openings;
  Maybe some truths escape all words;
  Maybe dulcet lines tell no truths.
 One may need to keep separated -- 
  Beauty and truth -- to avoid wounds.
 Inspect and haggle over each word --
  Distinctions maybe finer than a hair;
 Weigh each edit upon a scale;
  Ensure each cut serves its purpose.

Original poem in Simplified Chinese:

或仰逼于先条，或俯侵于后章。
或辞害而理比，或言顺而义妨。
离之则双美，    合之则两伤。
考殿最于锱铢，定去留于毫芒。
苟铨衡之所裁，固应绳其必当。