“let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences” Sylvia Plath
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Featured
About Sentences
“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” –Ernest Hemingway– There is something magical about good sentences. Writers are the creators of new thought every time we phrase words and punctuation together. Dang, that’s cool. And a bit of a power trip. So when I come… Read more
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Featured
About Me
Hey, friends. I’m Jen: wife, mother to three boys, and high school English teacher. I enjoy baking sourdough bread, reading, writing, and bicycling.
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Be an Idiot! (Sometimes.)
“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” –Bill Gates– I first saw this quote on a wall at a pizza joint called Pieology. I immediately resonated with it and committed it to memory. I have a quote board in my classroom, and I was excited to share the… Read more
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Fragments: A Lesson in Writing and in Life
“And then, the vague flicker of a lightbulb.” –Kate Morton, The Lake House— I’m really enjoying reading this book right now, and when I came across this sentence, I had to stop. I loved it. I love that it’s a fragment — that it defies conventions. I love that the sentence structure itself mimics the… Read more
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Read books. Not one kind. Mostly print.
“Friendship . . . is born at the moment when one man says to another, ‘What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . . ‘” –C.S. Lewis– Isn’t that so true of fellow readers? When I come across people who have read and loved Khaled Hosseini novels, I have to resist… Read more
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You’re Breathing . . . But You’re a Loser
“Listen — are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?” –Mary Oliver– Every now and then, my husband decides to clean something. This morning, it was the kitchen cart, which houses various “kitcheny” things: serving bowls; a breadbox he made that stores bags and boxes of dried fruit, nuts, and crackers; a… Read more
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Mush! And Other Lessons from a Dog
“He was beaten (he knew that); but he was not broken.” –Jack London, The Call of the Wild— So many great “life quotes” in a book about a dog. I’ll be honest: I decided to read this book because when my husband handed it to me, he told me that it’s really good . .… Read more
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Are you a human? Then disobey.
“Resist much, obey little.” –Walt Whitman– For the most part, I consider myself a rule follower. In college, when my boyfriend and his buddies launched water balloons onto the football field during a powder puff game or donned their wet-suits to “swim” in all of the on-campus fountains or caught an opossum to release it… Read more
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Ghosts . . . And the Power of a Good Sentence
“The ghosts are still here.” Well I’m hooked. What a fun first sentence from Dance of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson! I’m especially glad because this is a book that I am otherwise not drawn to. I’ll be honest: I just don’t care for the fantasy genre. But I’m reading it because I’m a high… Read more
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Wanna Write? Turn on the Faucet.
“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” –Louis L’Amour– What a great visual to the writing process! Through the analogy, L’Amour gives some simple advice for all the writers out there: just start. I have thought about blogging for years now. I have put it off… Read more
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