TreeHouseLetter

Fall is my favorite season and I suppose it has something to do with the trees. A new poetry collection and farewell to a friend. Passage from Sidney Lanier and The Marshes of Glynn.

A keyhole view of a week with the Literate Laundress. On laundry and language.

This is for my friend K--- and M--- and for you, but I suppose it's for myself. Learn about my daughter's letter and the song she shared with insight into music and the restless soul. Billie Marten's song and Rick Rubin's book on Creativity.

Learn about a real world example of a confusable. Discover a type of word with two opposite meanings. Word Nerd special. A reference and an essay recommendation. Bryan Garner and David Foster Wallace.

Literature informs and inspires us, says Argentine guitarist and composer Carlos Pavan. This letter considers his suite of songs inspired by Jorge Luis Borges, how the songs reflect the stories: El Sur, El Fin, Funes el Memorioso. Melody, myth, perfect memory. Learn why song IS story and discover the Music in Prose of the literary legend.

The four basic sentence constructions are simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex.* Like the 8-pack of crayons, this is the first order of business, tools we learn and use as children. Let’s face it: many never learn more than these. Add to your toolbox and improve writing immediately. Learn about loose (cumulative) and periodic (suspensive) sentences with inspiration from Vivian Gornick, Ernest Hemingway, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

My friend was recently robbed. It made me sad and reminded me of a story about Ryokan. Learn about the Zen monk who lived on Mount Kugami, Rene Descartes Discourse Part II on Method and Part IV on God and the Human Soul. With a reflection on the death of a young soldier.

A master sentence tends to be long though length is not its sole characteristic, nor is it a sign of a writer’s mastery. Like any art, the master sentence comes in infinite forms. Instead of trying to define what makes such a sentence, I share an example from the Book of Charlie, a memoir about a remarkable life. Understand the elements of artful sentence construction from a prominent writer.

What I learned in Sun Valley about living and writing and friends. Impromptu visit of Hemingway haunts, who lived and died there. A hike into the clouds, a French hound dog, and a foodie's paradise.

Improve writing immediately. "In the classic stand on the elements of style, writing is neither a way of thinking something out nor an art that exists for its own sake..." Learn about classic prose from authors Thomas and Turner with passages from award winning poet and writer Ocean Vuong. Why classic prose resembles cooking with its preparation in the kitchen and consumption in the dining room. Two Book recommendations.

We live in biblical times. Fires and floods. Plagues. Or, pandemics. Learn about flash flooding in the Hudson Valley and the First Noble Truth.

What does July 4th mean to a fledgling nation and what kinds of people made such a nation possible? Learn about Mark Manson's book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, and how his superhero the Disappointment Panda helps us see ourselves against a stark backdrop, the life of the soldier as she finishes Air Assault training.

Learn about the 'toughest man on the planet' and improve writing with examples of the four types of paragraphs. Also check out the two strand or A/B structure. To see the four paragraphs and learn more, visit my website at TreeHouseLetter.com.

Some seem to know what they were meant to do. This is about finding purpose and meaning in your work. Learn about the origin of the parable of the brick layers made popular by Angela Duckworth, two book recommendations, and insight on the 10,000 hour rule.

Thought exercise for the day. How many friends between you and anyone on the planet? Topics: Social connection on Earth in 2023, Network theory, Math geek special, logarithm

In popular culture this number is often referred to as Six Degrees of Separation, that all people on the planet are at the maximum six or fewer social connections away from each other. The idea likely originated in a 1929 short story and became notable in 1990 in John Guare’s play of the same name, Six Degrees of Separation.

A great speech is one you remember. This time of year you hear a lot of speeches and may have to give one of your own. So, give a speech worth remembering. I dissected a great speech to understand what makes it so and reflected on lessons I’ve learned as a speaker.

A soldier's own obituary, John "Alex" Hottell, III -- published in the NY Times 3 March 1971. A Memorial Day remembrance.

Thoughts from a British headmistress, marine veteran, and college graduate. Two book recs, one podcast rec.

What are they and why should we avoid them? Improve writing immediately. Bonus: two book recommendations on usage, grammar, and style

Four friends died recently and three were my age. Learn what makes the eulogy powerful and lasting from a personal vignette and from Vivian Gornick. An elegy on What is Dying? from Margaret Drabble to share with the bereaved. May they rest in peace.

My road trip last weekend had a detour to Assateague Island. Learn about wild horses on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, a wild herd in Patagonia, and the chlidren's classic, inspired by the true story of Chincoteague Ponies.

Baking Sally's shortbread cookies with my nephew and a German proverb. Miles Davis's advice to a young jazz guitarist. How these ideas provide insight on creating, baking, performing.

On dreams and patterns, a "Digit Dork" special with insight into Fibonacci and the Golden Ratio

On a lonesome stretch of road north of Nashville..... Learn about the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), the Soldier and the Citizen, on the Ides of March

True Tale from Toxin Tails and the Pet Poison Hotline about Red, the retriever St. Bernard mix.

Poetry for Emergencies and the Leonard Cohen translation of Roshi's Poem. A footnote depicts the lesser-known, closed to the public "Poe Arch" or Edgar Allan Poe Memorial at the archives at West Point

It's a powerful thing, belief. If a person believes in you, you can move mountains. Music as a gift, and a passage from Maya Angelou from her essay collection, Letter to My Daughter. 

Poetry for Emergencies. A discussion of Melody Moezzi's memoir, The Rumi Prescription, and how the mystic poet helps her deal with modern life challenges. 

This winter I received five books I own, four as gifts. What do you do when you receive a book you already own? One was Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. I pulled my copy off the shelf to read my notes, the marginalia, the pages underlined, tabbed, highlighted. What is Love? What are the two things? 

#blackhistorymonth

Happy Lunar New Year! The Vietnamese celebrate the Cat versus the Rabbit. Learn about the difference and pick up a writing tip from the songwriter and musician Al Stewart from his hit song, The Year of the Cat.

Happy Lunar New Year! The Vietnamese celebrate the Cat versus the Rabbit. Learn about the difference and pick up a writing tip from the songwriter and musician Al Stewart from his hit song, The Year of the Cat.  

Writing the obituary is a sobering task.  The structure and getting it right. WHO was the person and HOW did she live? Writing as a gift. 

Many authors publish one or two novels; few write full-time. Fewer write for a life-time. Excerpts and ideas from Haruki Murakami's memoir and essay collection, Novelist as a Vocation. On creativity, originality, and his writing process. 

A reader loves the TreeHouseLetter because it is "pithy and practical." The pithy in this letter is about the winter solstice and Christmas; the practical is about perceptions of time. How do we manage the human construct of time, as a child and as an adult and in writing? Learn about the divided self in memoir, how time creates meaning and tension. Understanding the character of "I" and the narrator of "I" helps writers and readers understand time in their own lives. Happy and Healthy 2023! 

Please rate this podcast or share if you liked. It really does help! Thank you for listening.  

Gratitude is vogue, hip, lit. It's handy and eternal, an ever-ready virtue . . . but it's the sense of duty and expectation that gives it a gloss and cheek that's a bit off-putting. In walks a fresh voice on basketball coaches and how to make the best ever soft-in-the-center, crispy-at-the-edges  chocoloate chip cookie. 

What I learn from my mother on a Tuesday morning about love and longing. How Susan Cain's new book, Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Makes us Whole, helps me understand her. 

Mid-life has its miseries. And, mid-life for me has fitness challenges. It was most noticeably on display in the Army’s ten-miler around Washington, D.C. this October. Here’s a story of inspiration for the mid-packers and the mid-lifers.

True story from the SMA--Sergeant Major of the Army Michael A. Grinston--who spoke at the Army Ten-Miler. A man with 35 years of service in the Army and a half dozen deployments shares his wisdom on service with grit and grace.

In her new book, Write For Your Life, Anna Quindlen argues for the importance of the diarist, such as the secret yet eternal life of Anne Frank. She ruminates on the doctor, the student, the gangster, the child, the parent. Love letters. Queen Elizabeth “spoke through her handwriting.” Writing is a human endeavor, for all of us, from criminal to royal. Learn why writing is one of the most precious and uncommon gifts we can give.

Just like song, for writing to work it must have rhythm. This has taken me a long time to learn. I came across the idea in Haruki Murakami’s memoir, Absolutely on Music. This book is about a series of conversations with the former conductor of the Boston Symphony, Seiji Ozawa. The novelist meets the maestro. They talk. Learn what the novelist has to say about writing and rhythm and decide if prose rhythm matters with less than average examples. Hear the music in the prose of Beryl Markham and David Foster Wallace.

My Vietnamese side of the family are foodies, planning visits and life around meals. Writers focus on the visual and often forget the other senses, taste and smell and sound and touch. Learn about Michelle Zauner's megahit-memoir and how it resonates with this reader, at times pitch perfect. 

Maybe the better way to think of this is, why you listen to or read TreeHouseLetter. For me, it’s about why I write. Which, are two sides of the same coin. Why do you Write? Who do you write for? 

Society obsesses with youth as if beauty were the monopoly of the young. Yet, wisdom and truth which come with age are beautiful in their own right and something we are quick to dismiss. The old and the very young have always held sway for me because of bald and unerring candor, and the lack of affectation. The title quote is from Ursula Le Guin's No Time to Spare. Learn what Le Guin and former Poet Laureate Donald Hall share about old age. 

What book do you believe is that good that you could hunker down and spend the remainder of your days with it? The absolute pinnacle of lexicography in one volume. Word work and how it improves writing. The Professor, the Madman, and Noah Webster. What is the singular trait common to each man and does each of us have the ability to tap into it? 

True story of the iconic investor. When is offensive language appropriate and effective? Ursula Le Guin on the last two swear words, George Patton on eloquent profanity, and Munger with the shock value of a well timed one-liner.

What is a good fragment and why use it in your writing?  Passages from Mary Oliver's essay, Upstream, and guidance from Priscilla Long. Two book recommendations. 

The march back is a 14 mile ruck with full gear and M4 rifle for 1200 new cadets in the West Point Class of 2026. It is the culminating event of Cadet Basic Training at West Point. Learn about the march, the Long Gray Line, and listen to life-changing stories. 

A visit to Augusta's Indie Book Store and local bakery. Learn about the cult pencil's limited volumes Blackwing 651 named for Bruce Lee, a prize purchase at The Book Tavern with insight on a fighting triad and writing. 

Word of the week. Dig into the word's roots--in architecture, psychology, philosophy, even philately--for a surprising and stirring take-away on function and beauty. 

Pitch is purely a psychological construct. If so, why do we love the music we love? A philosopher, a neuroscientist, a dog, and Roy Orbison help us understand why.