Author Archives: susandenterossgmailcom

The variety said to be the spice of life is equally important in your writing. Repetition in the form and sounds of your writing can make your narrative flat and lifeless. The same structure and phrasing reviewing similar content slow writing to a standstill. Readers head for the exit. See what I did in thatContinue reading “Pace in Writing”

Tendrils I yank the daisies up by their roots, spewing dirt across my toes but ending their sprawl and droop across the garden path. A memory flashes as I trim the roots and tug the leaves from the lower stems. My great-grandfather hands three-year-old me the roses he has de-thorned one by one to keepContinue reading “July 2024”

At the request of a fellow writing coach, I posted this advice on SM about “scare quotes,” those quotation marks used here and problematically elsewhere when nothing is being quoted. I share what I pulled from my teaching archives in case you’re curious. Use scare quotes only when essential and very sparingly even then. TheyContinue reading “Online coaching: “Scare Quotes””

The failure of U.S. newspapers to provide fair, accurate and informative coverage of breaking news was amply displayed in a recent Washington Post story, “Penn president resigns amid backlash to testimony on antisemitism.” The story is a follow up to testimony given by University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, President Claudine Gay of Harvard andContinue reading “The epitome of duplicity”

The blooms in the back garden, neglected for most of a decade before I bought this old house, emerge as the season shifts toward autumn. Old fashioned cabbage roses, phlox, and delicate Japanese anemones struggle to poke their heads through the weeds and scent my rooms with memories of Maine. Mornings in the garden, handContinue reading “Scented Memories”

Amid a late week of significant snow accumulation here in the inland Pacific Northwest, a turkey call greeted me from above the house as I fetched firewood in the predawn. I think I know who is calling. She strolled my upper meadow several times yesterday, occasionally pecking for food, but mostly with the air ofContinue reading “Sometimes It Snows”

In a Facebook post today, economist and political pundit Robert Reich said it’s time to amend the U.S. Constitution to overcome the Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission that “[allowed] individual donors to pour as much as $3.6 million directly into federal campaigns every election cycle – buying unparalleled personal influenceContinue reading “What Rule of Law?”

Yesterday I pulled a rune for the first time in a long while. Ansuz, the first of the thirteen cycle runes of self-awakening and self-change. Auspicious. Ansuz says it is timely for me to receive a message from the universe, a message that can be life changing. Perhaps the rune itself? Ten days until classesContinue reading “Worth a Shot”