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ML Hart

ML Hart's journal of observations, obsessions and inspirations

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Writing

Writing Books – not exactly the “glamorous life”

March 1, 2016 by Martha

How’m I supposed to explain it to my friends? I mean, that was me, the one who swore I’d never put myself through the anti-social agony, the jigsaw-puzzle-from-hell nightmare, the mano a mano word-wrangling that is writing another book. People tell me the life of an author is “glamorous,” which I’m gonna say can only …

Read moreWriting Books – not exactly the “glamorous life”

Putting in time for the everyday, unsexy bookwork

October 15, 2015 by Martha

I’ve been working like crazy on the book, have been for a couple months. It’s a little manic. Mostly it’s wrangling the research and trying to bring a bit of order to chaos, find a form I can access and pull it all into whatever is going to become The Book. In particular, the interviews …

Read morePutting in time for the everyday, unsexy bookwork

She’s back… with some whine

March 27, 2011 by Martha

Has it really been a whole year? Ay ay ay. Been working on the site, new design, mental commitment… hasn’t quite translated into sustained activity. I tell myself I’m getting there (does that count?) and console myself with awareness that this is connected to my real work, my writing. And try not to make myself …

Read moreShe’s back… with some whine

How your Blurb book can deliver perfect happiness

February 19, 2010 by Martha

I’m happy with my book. Maybe that obsessively perfectionist streak of mine pays off. Or maybe it’s just the research geek in me. Yesterday one of my FAB friends reminded me that there is no problem/topic/issue that cannot be squashed flat by piling enough research on top of it. Made me laugh, because I can …

Read moreHow your Blurb book can deliver perfect happiness
writer's tools - computer, camera, coffee

How to survive self-publishing

February 17, 2010 by Martha

I’ll never be any traditional publisher’s dream client. I don’t fit in. I mean, I’m pretty happy to have gotten my elevator speech on the current book down to four and a half minutes, but that doesn’t make for easy marketing. So it’s a good thing I have a day job. Figuring I’d sell fewer …

Read moreHow to survive self-publishing
scheduling tools - clock, calendar

How to write a book, 15 minutes at a time

February 2, 2010 by Martha

What, am I nuts? I work full time at a high-stress job. I go to school at night. I’m the sole caretaker for my 84-year old mother. And I think I’m going to write another book? Me? I don’t have time to write. That was a year and a couple months ago. This week I’m …

Read moreHow to write a book, 15 minutes at a time
montage of forms of writing, typewriter, script, hieroglyphics

Finding my writer’s voice

October 20, 2009 by Martha

Since the fourth grade, I’d been pushed and prodded and scolded to a particular style of writing. Something formal. Suitable for school. In dozens of English, history, literature courses, I learned how to write ‘appropriately’ for class papers. Later on, I’d learn how to write appropriately, but very differently, in an office, whether I was …

Read moreFinding my writer’s voice
who am I now? playwright Edward Albee's play paperback cover

Am I now, or have I ever been?

May 10, 2009 by Martha

Things are not what they seem. Who am I now? Depending on the day, my world can range from slightly off balance to pretty much skewed to completely upside down. All the talk about a life in balance and taking care of oneself, that’s all well and good – in theory. But taking care of …

Read moreAm I now, or have I ever been?
my books remind me of this fanciful illustration of woman reading a book

Reading is ‘something you do’

April 24, 2009 by Martha

Out with the old notion of the unsociable aesthete, pale and too-thin in a lonely room, huddled next to a stack of books. In with the idea of the reader actively engaged, all senses on high alert, merging body, mind, and spirit, ready to transform to read to an action verb. Reading is now a …

Read moreReading is ‘something you do’
text printed on old typewriter, New Chapter

Playing with writing the words

April 8, 2009 by Martha

Novelists have the luxury of leading us down the neural pathways of a character’s mind, allowing us to wander the by-ways, stopping at every scenic overlook on our way to Casterbridge, Casablanca, Mordor, Starkfield, the Land of Oz, the epoch of belief, the heart of darkness. We laugh, we cry; we suffer, sympathize and triumph …

Read morePlaying with writing the words
cut-out letters spell WORDS hung from strings like marionettes

Question everything: art, words and form

March 21, 2009 by Martha

Can we manipulate art, words and form into literature? How, exactly, do words become art? When does a story turn into literature? Why don’t we have a checklist of the qualifications and simply figure it out? This is literature, this is not, that might be. I’m not sure how I would begin to define, let alone …

Read moreQuestion everything: art, words and form
closeup of fingerprint whorls, digitized in blue

What you know and who you are

February 28, 2009 by Martha

Write what you know, they say. We always answer back: But what about this one, or that one who didn’t exactly know, if you know what I mean—I mean, what about In Cold Blood by Truman Capote? How about Philip K. Dick, whose classic novel was made into a film called Blade Runner? Peter Robb wrote …

Read moreWhat you know and who you are
street signs showing road closed and diversion represent what-if questions and procrastination

The art of delay, or procrastination as a means to an end

February 18, 2009 by Martha

In our hurry-up, gotta-have-it, don’t-waste-a-minute world where productivity is the holy grail and idleness is the biggest loser, procrastination and missing a deadline loom larger than original sin. All the excuses in the world cannot expiate the offender. It doesn’t matter how clever, intriguing, original, bizarre or even, in the end, true the excuse may …

Read moreThe art of delay, or procrastination as a means to an end
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MUSINGS ON THE ARTIST’S LIFE

ML Hart’s journal of observations, obsessions & inspirations

Writer. Documentary photographer. Artist.
I’m inspired by both shadow and light and curious about most everything. Welcome to my journal of musings.

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