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Carol S. Mann
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Bits and Pieces
“He knew everyone had flaws. People fell from grace all the time. But some people fell further than others.” From “Ferrelli’s Fall” (Creek Songs).
Category Archives: Inspiration
Newspaper Article about Creek Songs
The local newspaper of the Palm Springs/Coachella Valley area is The Desert Sun. On Sunday, September 18, 2022, Creek Songs and I were honored to be the subject of an article in the Arts and Culture Section, written by reporter … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Books and E-Books, Creativity, e-books, fiction writing, Finding Ideas: The Creative Process, Inspiration, International Book Awards, Looking for Inspiration, National Indie Excellence Awards, personal essay, Reading, short story, Writing
Tagged author Carol Mann, books, Creek Songs, reading, short story, short story collection, writing
7 Comments
Writing about Art
A painting can inspire a writer to paint with words. This “word painting” could be a poem, a piece of flash fiction, a short story, or perhaps even a novella or novel. A painting by artist Marlis Gray brought about … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, fiction writing, Finding Ideas: The Creative Process, flash fiction, Inspiration, Looking for Inspiration, Reading, short story, Writing
Tagged baby grand, Chopin, coughing disease, etude, flash fiction, hallucination, harp, laudanum, Music, music salon, musical instrument, percussion, Pleyel baby grand
8 Comments
Writing About a Piece of Art
The hummingbird in this painting by artist JoAnn Fallstone becomes a metaphor for the writing of a piece of prose poetry. Art can inspire words onto paper, adding another layer of meaning to the story the painting already portrays. The … Continue reading
Missing Time
We’ve been living in a surreal world where time has stalled, where a pandemic, sickness, fear, death, heroic health care workers, vaccines, economic hardship, health concerns, and isolation from family and friends have surrounded us. What a time we have … Continue reading
Skywatchers
Right now in the Sonoran Desert, rain won’t be our guest any time soon. We are in the midst of high summer temperatures. The temperature in my hometown of La Quinta is currently 113 degrees at 4:58 pm. Recent days … Continue reading
Posted in Inspiration, Looking for Inspiration, poetry, Writing
Tagged clouds, comet, free verse, high temperatures, Hope, Navajo mythology, Neowise, poetry, rain, rainbow, skywatcher, skywatching, Sonoran Desert, summer heat, thunder, Tsohanoai, writing
4 Comments
Free to be Wild
I’ve always had a fascination with horses. I admire their power, their beauty, and their role in furthering men’s dreams and goals through the ages. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing a sweet tempered Appaloosa named Ember, a nervous and … Continue reading
Desert Writers Expo 2020
February 15, 2020, was the Desert Writers Expo hosted by the Palm Springs Writers Guild and the Rancho Mirage Library and Observatory located in Rancho Mirage, California. Forty writers came together to offer their current books for sale to the … Continue reading
Caring for that Complicated Person
In a recent post called “Nurse Ratchet Goes to School,” I wrote about caregiving and going to caregivers’ school, all in an effort to give the best care possible to my husband Tony who will celebrate his 97th birthday on October … Continue reading
Welcome to Quilling
A recent birthday card introduced me to an old art form. It’s called quilling. When I first looked at the card, I thought its design was simply raised. On closer inspection, I found the design was three dimensional and composed … Continue reading
Posted in blogging, Creativity, Finding Ideas: The Creative Process, Inspiration, Looking for Inspiration, Reading, Writing
Tagged birthday cards with quilling, examples of quilling, filigree basket, filigree box, filigree work, Jane Austen, quilling, Renaissance, scrollwork, Sense and Sensibility, uses for quills
5 Comments
Nanook’s Journey
Do you remember the Beanie Baby craze of the early 1990s? These popular little toy animals had names like Chocolate the Moose, Squealer the Pig, and Patti the Platypus. They were stuffed loosely with plastic pellets (“beans”), making them small, … Continue reading
Posted in Inspiration, Looking for Inspiration, personal essay, Reading, Writing
Tagged a muse for writing, Beanie Babies, Comfort, dementia, good luck piece, inspiration, inspiration for writing, legacy, memorabilia, memories, Nanook the Husky, Northern Illinois University, talisman, writing inspiration
5 Comments
Written Beneath the Palms 