Writing for Direct Mail: The Sun

Yesterday, I received a direct mail piece from The Sun Magazine ... and read every word in the piece! Designed like a miniature version of the magazine, it contains seven fold-out panels alternating pages of photos and text.

When you open the first panel, the piece begins with "Praise for The Sun" including five quotes from two publications, from poet Robert Bly, author Bill McKibbon, and a subscriber. I loved Bly's description of the magazine, saying "it's full of people like a Globe Theatre; it's nourishing like a field of pumpkins; it's like a grandfather who talks to total strangers."

Open the next fold and you find a "Dear Reader" letter from the magazine's founder and editor, Sy Safransky. Sy's letter tells his personal story of starting the magazine, shares what's found in each issue "that celebrates beauty without ignoring the destructive forces around us; a publication whose politics are personal and whose God isn't way up in the sky." And he signs off with an invitation to "join us" (accompanied by a P.S. offering a free trial issue, with no obligation to buy).


The next fold opens to "Readers Write" (personal stories by our readers) and "Interviews" (from a conversation with David Edwards). Remaining panels offer "Fiction" (a short story) and "Nonfiction" (an essay), followed by the "Free Trial Offer" reply card.


Overall, a simply designed direct mail piece that clearly demonstrates the quality of writing and photography in the magazine.

So what did I do after reading the piece? I detached the mailing label from the front of the mailer, placed it in the "Please peel off address label and affix it here" box, and walked to my local post office with the business reply card in hand.

While I have no idea how many people responded to the mailer like I did, I'm confident that people who did will receive a magazine that achieves "the promise" of the direct mail piece -- great writing and great photography in a "handsomely designed" magazine.

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Writing for Direct Mail: The Sun

Four Words

Over 20 years ago, I read Natalie Goldberg's, Writing Down the Bones, and I've read every book she has written over the years. Her books on writing are both great for "practice" as well as for inspiration.

I'm currently rereading Goldberg's Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir. One brief chapter offers what I consider her best advice for any writer:

"I could tell you in four words what to do and it will hold you for your writing life. Do you want to know those four? Shut Up and Write."

It doesn't get any clearer than that. Of course, Natalie recommends that writers also take some "dreaming out the window" time and some time for a "noodle walk" between sessions to make space for intuition to enrich one's writing.

So, no more "writer blocks" and much less lollygagging: Shut Up and Write.

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Four Words

"Listening for the Story"

Yesterday I started reading Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot's book, The Third Chapter. In her introduction, the author shares her process for interviewing people for the book. She notes that she employed Eudora Welty's approach of "listening for the story": for its shape, intensity, rhythm, and texture; for its substance and content; for its metaphors and symbolism, for the light and shadows."

I loved how Lawrence-Lightfoot described her many roles: "I was the discerning connoisseur, developing a taste for the shape of their sentences, the cadence of their language, the arc of their stories. I was the artist, painting the landscape, drawing their portraits, sketching in the light and shadows. I was the spider woman, weaving together their life remnants, unsnarling the tangled threads of their stories, casting a net to catch them if they should fall. I was the probing researcher, patiently gathering data, asking the impertinent questions, examining their interpretations with skepticism and deliberation."

The author goes on to say that she "felt deeply engaged in new learning" while hearing the narratives of her interviewees, "echoing and reflecting the curiosity, vulnerability, risk-taking, and passion of their journeys in my own. I looked into their eyes and saw my reflection, the refracted images of my face in the mirror: a sixty-two-year-old woman with 'confessional moments' of my own."

I've conducted hundreds of interviews over the years and have often felt that I was "facing a mirror" as I heard people's stories. But I've never read such a beautiful description of the process. Thank you, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot!

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"Listening for the Story"

Defining the difference in genre (Melissa Hart)

One of the writer's blogs I read is Melissa Hart's "Butt to Chair." Her recent post titled "What's My Genre" takes on a workshop student's question:

“How can you tell the difference between an article, an essay, and a short story?”

I enjoyed Ms. Hart's response. And picked a few blackberries hanging over my fence!

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Defining the difference in genre (Melissa Hart)

Silence, Solitude, and Creativity

This week I read Anne LeClaire's new book, Listening Below the Noise: A Meditation on the Practice of Silence. The book describes her experience of practicing total silence on two Mondays each month for over seventeen years.

In LeClaire's chapter on "Nourishing the Creative Self," I appreciated what she says about the power of imagination:

"Today our imaginations are under siege by a constant barrage of noise and busyness. Our culture regards solitude and silence as something to be avoided. We would rather scrub grout than spend expended time alone.

A high cost comes from this. We have lost the path by which we journey to the place deep within where dreams and stories and visions appear. As Picasso noted, solitude is necessary for this work. In silence's calm surrounds, we discover the power of imagination and throw open the gates to creativity. In the opulent luxury of solitude, time becomes elastic and creative impulses surface and are allowed room to breathe. Sitting quietly, we gently enter our own inner worlds. Daydreaming, Woolgathering. Lost in space. These are rich and fertile activities. The playgrounds of imagination."

Thankfully, at this stage of my life I have many hours of solitude each week -- some of the time in silence (but never full days like the Ms. LeClaire). Knowing how important solitude is for nourishing my creativity and inner life, I may well give the author's practice of silence a try. I definitely want to reduce the noise and distractions in my life and would welcome an upsurge in creativity. Her experience transformed her life, igniting her creativity and fostering new connections with others, with herself, and with nature.

I enjoyed reading about Anne LeClaire's discoveries from answering an unexpected call to "Sit in silence." Now the question for me is "When will you start?"

If you decide to read the book, please send along your comments. Or share your experiences of silence and solitude.

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Silence, Solitude, and Creativity

Creative Writing: Lost Art?

I've been away from this blog for many months working on other projects. This morning when I read Paul Bodin's article, Creative Writing Fast Becoming Lost Art for Most in the Register Guard, I decided it was time for a new posting.

Bodin wonders "How many of us write for pleasure or for meaning these days?" Most of my writing lately has been on the internet but I still occasionally write in my paper journal -- usually in a coffee shop -- both for meaning and pleasure. One of my recent "for fun and pleasure" creative writing gigs has been on Twitter where I began writing "tweeku" poems (I shortened haiku to 2-5-2 syllables to easier fit the 140 character limit of Twitter). My web analytics guru son turned me on to Twitter after he created a new tool for "tweeps" that he calls the Twitalyzer.

Many of my business related projects involve creative writing -- both for print and internet applications. Overall, for the past few years I've been writing much more than I ever have in my worklife (and I'm attempting to work just a bit more than half-time).

What has your experience been with creative writing? Lost art? Or more writing in different media?

I look forward to reading the planned sequel to Bodin's essay.

Creative Writing: Lost Art?

Finding A Lost Northwest Book

In the Sunday Oregonian, Matt Love from Nestucca Spit Press writes about his sleuthing to find whether or not an anthology was published for Oregon's centennial. Indeed there was and my favorite Oregon poet, William Stafford, had both a poem and short story in the anthology.

Love made a PDF of the short book available (it's in the public domain) at his website for downloading. Makes for interesting reading, especially for Oregonians with curiosity about the state's history and its writers.

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Finding A Lost Northwest Book

Marilynne Robinson's Novels: Article by David Propson

One of my favorite fiction writers, Marilynne Robinson was featured in The Wall Street Journal today in a story by David Propson titled "Weaving Humanity Into History."

Robinson wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Gilead" and an earlier book, "Housekeeping." "Gilead" stands as one of the Top Ten novels I've ever read and I look forward to my reading of her new book "Home" (which I started last evening).

Propson writes the "one of Ms. Robinson's aims in "Gilead" and "Home" seems to be to weave humanity back into history. Her quietly lyrical novels are in fact haunted by the past, preoccupied by the possibility of redemption -- not only of their characters but of their country. "Gilead" and "Home" are -- among much else -- antidotes to the processes of historical forgetting that Ms. Robinson sees constantly at work."

If you're looking for splendid book to enjoy this October, I highly recommend "Gilead." After you've read it, I suspect you'll want to continue your time with Robinson's characters and their Iowa town in "Home" (instead of having to wait four years between publication of the novels like I did).

Marilynne Robinson's Novels: Article by David Propson

"Slug Queen" Story in The Wall Street Journal

A young reporter from Oregon, Mary Pilon, wrote a front page Wall Street Journal story which resulted in an article in her hometown newspaper:

"Our queen of gastropods oozes charm upon Wall Street Journal front page" | The Register-Guard

Take a look at the original WSJ story which include some playful video.

Such is life in Eugene in September!

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"Slug Queen" Story in The Wall Street Journal

An Amazing and Beautiful Travel Blog

Last Sunday's Oregonian featured an extraordinary blog -- Notes from the Road -- by Erik Gauger in the newspaper's travel section.

I'm enjoying reading his many blog posts and viewing his amazing photos creating with a 4 x 5 camera, his hand-painted sketches, watercolor maps, and travel notes.

I heartily recommend the site for some good reading on a beautifully illustrated blog.

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An Amazing and Beautiful Travel Blog

Top Choice for a Next Career: Editorial Cartoonist

I love editorial cartoons. Being an editorial cartoonist is my top choice for a "next career." With all the "stuff" from Washington over the past eight years and now, the political campaign for the Presidency (or is it for the Vice Presidency?), there are so many laughable opportunities to choose from.

Jack Ohman, working for The Oregonian, is among the best editorial cartoonists around today. His cartoons are published online daily for those of us who don't get the Portland newspaper every day. Take a look at the his cartoons over the past week or so.

Do you have a favorite editorial cartoonist? Or a favorite editorial cartoon? Let me know who or what is making you laugh when you read an editorial page.

Top Choice for a Next Career: Editorial Cartoonist

Quitting Your Day Job to Write at Home

In today's Oregonian (Aug. 31), mystery writer April Henry writes about her experience of quitting her day job to write full-time at home. As one who has done just that more that once, I found her story of the "dream" and the "reality" hilarious (and ever so true):

What really happens when you quit your day job

Unlike April, virtually all my writing from my home-based office has been non-fiction. She took her "leap" home from her corporate job after writing six novels. I took my first leap home to write nearly 30 years ago when I was in my mid-30's. I joined the technical writing business my wife had started and together, we made a great success of it writing computer-user manuals for large corporations in the Chicago area. It was fun and sometimes exhausting. And it made parenting little boys a bigger challenge plus stretched our marriage to the breaking point.

One of the first "realities" I learned very quickly about myself was that I needed to "leave home" to be able to work at home. I needed to get out of the house in the morning and walk to a neighborhood restaurant for my morning coffee (and journal write about my life before starting any writing on work projects). Over the years, I've done variations of that morning ritual. Today, I go for a morning walk for daily exercise and just watch my mind "roam" wherever it needs go as I notice my surroundings (without writing anything down!). I start working on writing projects shortly after I get back home (actually, I usually read and respond to email first). Sometimes, I take my laptop to a coffee shop to write first drafts amidst the clatter and chatter. But I need the solitude and silence of home to edit and finish my writing projects.

Do you write at home? What works for you? Did you find that "reality" didn't exactly match your "dream" when you quit your day job to work from home?

Quitting Your Day Job to Write at Home

The Work and Art of Writing

Sunday's Oregonian (Aug. 24) had a piece on writing by the "metal cowboy", Joe Kurmaskie, who interviewed authors about their writing process. A fun read. Yet the subject seems to be a perennial (and serious) question for writers or people "thinking" about becoming writers. Take a look: The work and art of writing: muscle vs. muse

After over forty years of writing for a variety of media (which included many, many days of waiting for my "muse"), I come down strongly on the side of "muscle". What does my muse have to say about that? Could be a long wait! Meanwhile, keep those keys clickin', Todd.

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The Work and Art of Writing

Writing Book Reviews

One of my monthly assignments is to write a book review for our city magazine, Springfield Connection. Thankfully, I get to select books of my choice for the reviews so I'm always writing about books of interest to me.

Even so, I find it challenging to write just 500 words about any book I've read. My hope is that I capture the essence of the book and convey enough information for a readers of the review to decide whether to not to spend time reading the book. So far, I've reviewed only non-fiction books but plan to review some fiction and poetry in the future.

Here's a sample of my latest book review (others featuring Finding Our Fathers, The Mature Mind, The Last Lecture, and The Legacy Guide are available in back issues of Springfield Connection and on my website):

My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor

By Todd Peterson

The human brain. It’s mysterious. And it’s marvelous!

Our brain contains about 100 billion neurons. It consumes a quarter of the body’s oxygen and most of its calories. Yet just weighs about three pounds.

Our brain is the seat of consciousness, thought, memory, and emotion. It is the control center that regulates bodily activities, receives and interprets sensory impulses, and transmits information to our muscles and body organs.

But what happens when the brain is injured? In My Stroke of Insight, neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor tells about her personal experience and remarkable discoveries about the brain.

At the age of thirty-seven, Taylor experienced a massive stoke in the left side of her brain. The brain scientist observed her own brain deteriorate over four hours as she lost her ability to recall any of her life. She could no longer talk, walk, read, or write.

It took Jill Taylor eight years to recover from her stoke. What she learned during her healing journey has implications for every human being, not just those who suffer a stroke or other brain injury.

Taylor’s stroke damaged the left hemisphere of her brain – the language center, home of the ego, the rational, time-oriented “left mind.” She experienced living from her brain’s right hemisphere – her “right mind” that remembers isolated moments, thinks in pictures, and perceives the “big picture”.

Taylor writes that “to the right mind, no time exists other than the present moment, and each moment is vibrant with sensation. Life or death occurs in the present moment. The experience of joy happens in the present moment. Our perception and experience of connection with something that is greater than ourselves occurs in the present moment. To our right mind, the moment of now is timeless and abundant.”

The two hemispheres of our brain not only perceive and think differently neurologically, they “demonstrate very different values based on the types of information they perceive, and thus exhibit very different personalities. My stoke of insight is that at the core of my right hemisphere consciousness is a character that is directly connected to my feeling of deep inner peace. It is completely committed to the expression of peace, love, joy, and compassion in the world.”

By recognizing the differences in the right and left mind, we can lead our lives with a more “balanced-brain approach.” We have more choice in how we think, fee, and behave when we are clear about which side of our brain is processing different types of information. The author describes how to connect with the deep inner peace that resides in the right side of our brain.

From her experience, Taylor believes “the more time we spend running our inner peace/compassion circuitry, then the more peace/compassion we will project into the world and ultimately the more peace/compassion we will have on the planet.”

Ultimately, all the difficult work Jill Bolte Taylor did to recover her left hemisphere functions has made possible the sharing of her right mind discoveries. (Her speeches and interviews are available at www.drjilltaylor.com).

My Stroke of Insight is a fascinating look at the human mind, an inspiring guide for people recovering from a brain injury, and a gift to everyone seeking deep inner peace in their lives.

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Writing Book Reviews

Why Read Poetry Aloud

In my reading of the Friends of William Stafford newsletter (Summer 2008), I came across a startling observation by poet Li-Young Lee about reading poetry aloud. He was responding to the question "Do you think it's important to read poetry out loud and if so, why?" (from a member of the audience at Poetry Downtown in Portland):

... I think of a poem as the musical score for the instrument that is the human voice. The human voice speak only on the exhalation breath, which is the dying breath. Because poetry packs a lot of meaning into a few short words, it could be said that reading poems aloud is about making our ever-approaching deaths more meaningful -- that reading aloud exercises our dying breath and gives it increased vitality ...

One of my favorite things to do is read poetry out loud and I especially enjoy reading William Stafford poems at our local celebration of the poet's birthday each January. Everyone in the audience has an opportunity to read one or more of Stafford's poems (or one of their own in remembrance of the poet) in front of the group of usually 25-50 people.

Years ago, I recall "practicing" reading poems I selected out loud before going to the celebration (I suppose to reduce my fear of bumbling in front of the crowd). But in recent years, I've chosen to just silently read through several poems ahead of time and select a few possibilities for my reading. At the celebration, I make my poem selection based on what feels right in the moment, go up to the lectern, look out at the audience, and read a poem aloud "for the first time." That's when I experience the vitality of the "dying breath" that Li-Young Lee described.

Do you read poetry or prose aloud to people in your life? To a large audience? Let me know your experience and your reaction to Lee's observation about reading poetry out loud.

NOTE: Li-Young Lee's newest collection is titled, Behind My Eyes. His lovely poem, To Hold, is reprinted in the Friends of William Stafford newsletter. It contains the lines "One day we'll lie down and not get up. One day, all we guard will be surrendered."

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Why Read Poetry Aloud

Writing About Elders

One of my favorite assignments is to write stories about people who've lived 80 years or more. I enjoy interviewing elders and hearing their life stories (see more at my Creating Your Life Legacy website). Recently, I was assigned a story for Springfield Connection Magazine about an 85-year old writer, Milt Cunningham. I had read many of his weekly op-ed columns in the Springfield News (closed in 2007) and looked forward to having a lively conversation with him.

Here's the story I wrote about the man whose "bones are made of Big Horn granite," published in the August 2008 issue of Springfield Connection:


Milt Cunningham: Springfield’s “Big Horn” Wrangler of Words

By Todd Peterson

“I’ve always said my bones are made of Big Horn granite,” Milt Cunningham declared with a lilt in his voice. The 85-year old native of Wyoming grew up in the Big Horn country where he worked as a ranch hand and logged in the mountains with horses.

“Way back ... when I was ten years old ... I recall playing with language, making sounds with words like playing scales on a piano,” Milt said. “I wrote lots of doggerel and limericks.”

Over the years, Milt Cunningham has written over fifty short stories, many more limericks, and a novel. Most people in Springfield know him from his 16 years of writing feature stories and op-ed columns for the now defunct Springfield News.

Milt and his wife Kathleen moved to Oregon in 1955 to go to college. At the time, they decided to buy a temporary home while completing their Master’s degrees at the University of Oregon. Today, fifty-three years later, the couple is still living in that “temporary” home in Springfield.

Both Milt and Kathleen became teachers of language arts. Milt first taught at the old Coburg School and then moved on to Thurston for 22 years. He retired from teaching in 1985 and has focused on his writing ever since. Kathleen became a college teacher, an artist, and a poet as well as the “best and severest critic” of her husband’s writing.

Of his years of writing for the Springfield newspaper, Milt says “I morphed from a feature writer to doing mostly political writing. The editorial page became my bully pulpit (like Teddy Roosevelt) where I could reach lots of readers and hopefully change some minds.”

Milt spent about ten years writing his novel, Where Trails Cross, published in November of 2007. The book is a 512-page tale of life in the Big Horn Mountain area of Wyoming in the 1850's.

In the “Afterword” of his novel, Milt notes the impetus for his story: “For many years I have thought about the men who decided to move their families to Oregon or California against the wishes of their wives, and because of that decision lost them all on the way. Often they all died in the same catastrophe: from drowning or the ravages of cholera, small pox, or some other illness. Usually the men married again, often very quickly by our modern thinking. Part of the reason is that people needed each other to survive.”

Milt goes on to say “But I always wondered how a man could live with himself, knowing that his wife and children had all perished specifically because of his decision.”

After several years of dealing with health issues, Milt Cunningham characterizes the “golden years” of his life as the “rusted years.” Married nearly 60 years to Kathleen, he says “that’s a long time to live with a man like me!” And a long time for Springfield readers to enjoy the prose and poetry of the man from Big Horn country.
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For a copy of Milt Cunningham’s novel, Where Trails Cross, please call him at (541) 746-4185.

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Writing About Elders

More on Writing About Artists: Bob Keefer on Mark Clarke

One of the many pleasures of living in Eugene-Springfield is having an excellent daily newspaper. The Register-Guard is a family owned newspaper, surviving into the fourth generation of the Alton Baker family. After growing up on reading The Minneapolis Star & Tribune (when they were morning and evening newspapers) and later working as an intern at the paper, plus several years of reading The Chicago Tribune, I appreciate great newspapers.

Last Thursday in the weekly R-G Arts Section, arts editor Bob Keefer wrote an exceptional story about one of the Northwest's finest artists, Mark Clarke. Having written many stories about local artists over the past year and a half, I especially enjoy Keefer's talent at capturing the essence of the artist and his art.

To see more of Mark Clarke's art, visit the Karin Clarke Gallery website.

More on Writing About Artists: Bob Keefer on Mark Clarke

Review of Garrison Keillor at the Oregon Bach Festival

For people who read my comments about Garrison Keillor, the show he did for the Oregon Bach Festival was a "happy to be there" event for me and the capacity audience. I was going to write about it but, after reading Marilyn Farwell's excellent review of the show, I decided to post her story instead. Enjoy!

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Review of Garrison Keillor at the Oregon Bach Festival

The Cartoon Cover: A Rorschach Inkblot

Of all the stories and analysis I've read about the "satirical" cartoon of Barack and Michelle Obama on the cover of The New Yorker, today's political commentary in the Oregonian best hits the mark.

Cynthia-Lou Coleman, associate professor of communication at Portland State University, writes that Journalists assume they get it, you don't. I especially appreciated her comment that the cartoon is "not just a mirror; the cover is a Rorschach inkblot that allows you to peer into the picture and interpret its meaning through your own prism. Problem is, our prisms are not the same, and it's folly to assume what others are thinking based on our own individualistic viewpoint."

How did you interpret the cover? And what do you think of the "folly" of assuming what others think about it?

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The Cartoon Cover: A Rorschach Inkblot

Literary Influences of Writers (with Billy Collins)

Reading poet Billy Collins story in the Weekend Journal brought to mind my boyhood in western Minnesota and the Saturday morning's I enjoyed at the Hollywood Theater. His article, Inspired by a Bunny Wabbit, spoke to the "question of literary influence" on writers. Collins confesses that his "own poetry would not have developed in the direction it did, for better or worse, were it not for the spell that was cast over me as a boy by Warner Bros. cartoons."

I can relate to the "spell" of cartoons I watched most every Saturday when I was a boy. Like Billy Collins, I watched Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd on the big screen at the "Hollywood" (we actually had another movie theater a half a block away and a drive-in theater on the outskirts of town -- the Star-Lite -- in our town of less than 6000 people).

But unlike the former U.S. poet laureate, my not-so-literary influences were the ever-present cowboys -- Gene Autry (always singing!), Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers (and Dale Evans), and the Lone Ranger (and Tonto). I don't remember a single film title, just lots of good guys (white hats) chasing bad guys (black hats) riding horses across the dusty prairies of the West. Of course, the good guys were always successful in their chase and the bad guys ended up "behind bars" for the rest of their days (or until next Saturday's movie).

Whether or not watching cowboy movies on Saturday mornings in the 1950's has "inspired" my writing, I've written thousands of words over the years about "good guys" (good products, good services, good news, good people). I haven't written very much about "bad guys" except references to competitive products and services (most not really "bad", just less good). Of course, the "chase" seems to have been a consistent theme ... find the right product, the right service, the right words ... throughout my years in the business world.

No doubt, my writing would have taken a different direction if I would have been influenced (as Billy Collins was) by Looney Tunes' cartoons always ending with "the unmistakable bull's-eye and Porky Pig letting us know that that is, indeed, all, folks."

Who are your literary influences? Who or what inspires your writing today?


NOTE: Photo of Hollywood Theater (no longer showing movies) by S McGee on Flickr.

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Literary Influences of Writers (with Billy Collins)