Kendall Giles

A month or so ago I found a little bird in my basement. I wasn't sure how he got in there --- maybe he came in when I had the outside door opened for a couple hours? I am not a biologist, so I don't know what type of bird it was, but if I had to make a guess, I would say some sort of nuthatch? He had brown stripes, and seemed just as happy sitting on the basement floor as he did hanging upside down on the cinder block wall. Very quick movements --- I couldn't see him in flight, but would just see him appear in a new location, much like the X-man Nightcrawler, teleporting from place to place. Oh, there he is. Oh, now he's gone.

Anyway, I felt really bad that this bird was trapped in my basement. So I put out water and food, and opened the door for hours at a time for several days in a row, hoping he would sense the open outside door and fly to freedom. I was in knots, worried the bird would die, trapped in my dark basement.

But after several days of Operation: Rescue the Little Bird, the stubborn bird was still there.

So, finally, in a fit of desperation, I opened the door to the outside and made a big production of stomping and waving my arms, shaking a broom like a Wild Thing, trying to scare the bird out the door. I was willing to be the angry monster, for a short time, if it meant the bird would survive.

But the little bird just looked at me, hopped from clothes line to rafter, then promptly left via the tiny unused dryer vent leading outside.

So then I felt bad that I had scared the bird, who knew what he was doing the whole time.

Weeks went by with no sign of the little bird in my basement, and me with guilt for being the big bully.

So tonight when I went down to do laundry I was happy to see the little bird again, teleporting to and fro in my basement. And this time I didn't stomp around or wave my arms, but quietly walked back upstairs.

Here are four books on writing I just finished reading that you may find of interest. These books give insight into the nuts and bolts of the writing life, fill in the backstory of how writers craft their ideas, show how to read critically, and discuss why books and writing are important.

How to be a writer in an internet world

This book, Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st Century Writer, by Jeff Vandermeer, is probably the best, single-volume source for how to be a writer today. It contains strategies, tips, plans, advice, guidance, and motivation for almost all phases of life as a writer, from setting up a healthy and productive work schedule to networking to using social media platforms like Facebook to working with editors to dealing with fame and publicity.

Really, this is a useful book.

Reading like a writer

In Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them, Francine Prose walks us through pieces of model stories written by great writers, helping us train our eye for good technique in the elements of writing good fiction, focusing on individual words, sentences, and paragraphs, as well as dialogue, character, and other components important in making a work enduring and memorable.

Listening in as an author writes a story

In Ron Carlson Writes a Story, author Ron Carlson lets us listen in, piece by piece and draft by draft, to his thoughts and motivations as he writes a short story. Kind of like looking over the shoulder of a professional writer at work.

Reflections on the life of a writer

In A Dangerous Profession: A Book About the Writing Life author Frederick Busch presents a collection of essays musing on authors and works he likes as well as insights into the life of a writer based on his own experiences as novelist, critic, and teacher.

Great news for Kindle 2 owners --- the version 2.3 software update includes support for rendering .pdf files.

Here is a .pdf file I copied onto my Kindle, shown in portrait mode:

And here's the PDF file shown in landscape mode:

This software update also allows for manual screen rotation!

I should also point out that they've consolidated Kindle 2 lines, and so now any purchase of a Kindle 2 comes with *global* wireless connectivity.

There is also an update for the Kindle DX , which provides for better cropping of .pdf files and increases the length of time before the Kindle switches to screensaver mode.