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Crescent Dragonwagon

WIDOW, WILL YOU DANCE WITH ME? AN INVITATION

WIDOW, WILL YOU DANCE WITH ME? AN INVITATION

By Crescent Dragonwagon 1 Comment

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My dear fellow member of the Club No One Wants to Join, I started Widowhood Wednesday just under a year ago. I was almost seventeen years past my first widowhood, almost three past my second. I was accompanying (to the extent it is possible that another person can accompany another in the freshets of recent grief), my recently widowed friend… Read More

Filed Under: #WidowhoodWednesday, Conversations with Crescent Classes, Crescent Dragonwagon, Events, Fearless Living, self-understanding, personal growth, widowhood Tagged With: community, grief, grieving, the Club No One Wants to Join

CHARLOTTE ZOLOTOW’S “SLEEPY BOOK” AWAKENS IN CHINA

CHARLOTTE ZOLOTOW’S “SLEEPY BOOK” AWAKENS IN CHINA

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A PERSON HAS A LIFE, WITH A DEFINITE AND IRREFUTABLE BEGINNING, MIDDLE, AND END. BUT, WITH A BOOK IT’S NOT SO CLEAR. I spent a recent Sunday, improbably, working on an introduction to the forthcoming Chinese edition of  a children’s book entitled Sleepy Book. Written in 1956 or ’57 and published in 1958, its author is Charlotte Zolotow, my late mother…. Read More

Filed Under: Books, Charlotte Zolotow, Fearless Writing, Nothing Is Wasted on the Writer, Writing Courses Tagged With: children's book illustrations, children's books, literary executor, reissues, Sleepy Book

DEAR ROSALEE, ABOUT THAT WHOLE FUTURE QUESTION, & USING OR NOT USING, & SOME STUFF MY WRITER-FATHER (WHO USED TO BE A DRUNK) PASSED ON TO ME …

DEAR ROSALEE, ABOUT THAT WHOLE FUTURE QUESTION, & USING OR NOT USING, & SOME STUFF MY WRITER-FATHER (WHO USED TO BE A DRUNK) PASSED ON TO ME …

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SOMETIMES YOU JUST DON’T KNOW HOW IT’S GOING TO COME OUT. OR EVEN IF IT WILL. BUT IF YOU HANG IN THERE ANYWAY, TRANSFORMATION IS POSSIBLE. IN FACT, IT MIGHT BE ON ITS WAY TO YOU RIGHT NOW, HERE’S WHAT MY EDGY, ALCOHOLIC, WRITER FATHER – WHO LATER SOBERED UP – TAUGHT ME ABOUT THIS. About three years ago, a… Read More

Filed Under: Fearless Writing, Maurice Zolotow, Nothing Is Wasted on the Writer Tagged With: AA, daughter, father, Los Angeles, Maurice Zolotow, sobriety, transformation, writing

WHAT CARLY SIMON & HER BACK-UP SINGER CAN TEACH YOU ABOUT WRITING (OR, “CLOUDS IN MY COFFEE”)

WHAT CARLY SIMON & HER BACK-UP SINGER CAN TEACH YOU ABOUT WRITING (OR, “CLOUDS IN MY COFFEE”)

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Remember “You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon? There’s an apocryphal story about it. Decades ago Simon was flying across country to New York with her then-back-up singer and piano player, Billy Mernit. He noticed a reflection: what was outside the plane window was mirrored in her coffee cup. He said to her offhandedly, “Look, clouds in your coffee.” Which became,… Read More

Filed Under: Fearless Writing, Nothing Is Wasted on the Writer Tagged With: Carly Simon, creative process, David Geffen, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, songwriting. creative writing, Warren Beatty, writing

BILLIONAIRES, ROME, & APPALACHIA: WINNERS, LOSERS, GENEROSITY

BILLIONAIRES, ROME, & APPALACHIA: WINNERS, LOSERS, GENEROSITY

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Last week, in Louisville,  Kentucky, I noticed a nice-looking — okay, cute — somewhat formally dressed man, seated alone across the aisle from me on the bus. He was youngish (I’m 64, so a shocking number of people now look youngish to me). He seemed a little jittery, not quite at ease. This was the last night of the 39th Annual Conference… Read More

Filed Under: Fearless Writing

HOW I MET HIM, LOVED HIM, LOST HIM: BLUEGRASS, APPLE CRISP, & FEARLESSNESS IN THE FACE OF MYSTERY

HOW I MET HIM, LOVED HIM, LOST HIM: BLUEGRASS, APPLE CRISP, & FEARLESSNESS IN THE FACE OF MYSTERY

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I blame, or credit, Carol Gaddy. She heard me reading poetry between sets of a bluegrass band at a now-defunct nightclub in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. If you are silly enough to attempt such a reading, you will find your poetry greatly improved by the endeavor. The feedback is like no other:  if one single phrase isn’t smacking your audience upside… Read More

Filed Under: #WidowhoodWednesday, Fearless Writing, Nothing Is Wasted on the Writer

Fearless Writing in New England

Fearless Writing in New England

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At Crescent Dragonwagon’s renowned breakthrough writing workshop, you’ll find your voice. Find your juice. Cozy up to your fears and get rock-solid about how to use them. Get jazzed and energized even in these most uncertain of times. Write, and surprise yourself doing it. Unlike workshops where the glow lasts only as long as the workshop, you’ll leave with lasting self-mentoring skills and strengthened resilience. As you experience how Fearless works, you’ll be better able to walk through the difficulties and setbacks inherent in writing — and in life. Featured in O Magazine, Fearless offers powerful assistance to writers, artists, entrepreneurs, and anyone who wants to learn how to stop driving with the emergency brake on. Some take the workshop to improve their writing itself, or to make doing it less angst-y. Others take it for the fearlessness, using writing as a process and tool, a way to break… Read More

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: Crescent dragonwagon, Fearless Writing, fearless writing in new england, writing course

Join Crescent Dragonwagon Online February 29th!

Join Crescent Dragonwagon Online February 29th!

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Crescent Dragonwagon presents an evening together, Procrastination, Toasted, Write Now, Don’t Wait Another Four Years.  A one evening online course for writers and want to be writers. This delightful experience will feature Crescent sharing processes to overcome procrastination and develop your practice of writing and fear of failure as a writer.  The creator of Fearless Writing ™ as featured in… Read More

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: Crescent Dragonwagon's Procrastination, online event, Toasted. Write now. Don't wait another 4 years.

getting good: the three secrets of writing (and everything else)

getting good: the three secrets of writing (and everything else)

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Quick, think of your favorite musician. Bonnie Raitt? Yo-Yo Ma? Doesn’t matter. John Coltrane? Lady Gaga? Eric Clapton? Youssou N’Dour? Doesn’t matter. Dolly Parton, Mirian McPartland, Howlin’ Wolf, Luciano Pavarotti? Still doesn’t matter. Because whoever he or she is, he or she did (and, if alive, still does) three things that anyone, who is good at anything, does. Those three things:… Read More

Filed Under: Books, Charlotte Zolotow, Crescent Dragonwagon, Nothing Is Wasted on the Writer, self-understanding, personal growth, Writing Courses Tagged With: practice makes practice, writers, writing

This is the way it works: reminder from a turkey buzzard

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This is the way it works. You return to a town where you used to live. You go on a short walk, on a street you have walked many times. You are only stretching your back and legs and getting a few more steps in so your Fitbit will be happy at the end of the day. You are only… Read More

Filed Under: Crescent Dragonwagon, Nothing Is Wasted on the Writer, Writing Courses Tagged With: appreciation, Arkansas, David Koff, Eureka Springs, fitness, gradual transformation, grief & grieving, home, hope, love, Ned Shank, poetry, resilience, Wislawa Syzmborska, writer's memory

Are you a real writer? The sure way to find out…

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It's 9:24 a.m. I have to leave at 10:00 to drive a deeply depressed friend to her therapy appointment. I am in the middle of writing one of my long, thoughtful, typical essay-type posts, which my friend Ronni Lundy calls "blongs." I left it, and began writing this instead. I have a bowl of Irish oatmeal beside me, cooked with… Read More

Filed Under: Books, Crescent Dragonwagon, Fearless Writing, Nothing Is Wasted on the Writer, self-understanding, personal growth Tagged With: fame, friendship, getting things done, Ned Shank, real writer, write every day, writer, writers, writing

uncovering: a yak, a six-year-old, and some witches walk into a post…

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…that particular morning, that little girl in Atlanta did have a question. A real question, and, as I have said, she asked it with solemnity and gravitas. Her manner made me wonder later if she, literal as all children are, had perhaps been puzzling over it for weeks, as I remember puzzling over why “witches” were in the Pledge of Allegiance. (“And to the Republic, for witches stand…”)
“Do you believe,” that little girl asked me, “that it’s true that you really can’t judge a book by its cover?”

Filed Under: Charlotte Zolotow, Crescent Dragonwagon, Fearless Writing, Nothing Is Wasted on the Writer Tagged With: appreciation, artists, Charlotte Zolotow, children's book illustrations, children's book writing, children's books, compassion towards self and others, Crescent dragonwagon, David McPhail, illustration, Jerry Pinkney, Little Brown, writers, writing

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Tuesdays with Crescent Spring 2019

Tuesdays with Crescent Spring 2019

January Class Series

January Class Series

Works In Progress Spring 2019

Works In Progress Spring 2019

#DeepFeast Recipes

A  LENTIL SOUP SO “RICH, FRAGRANT, SATISFYING” THAT SOMEONE ATE IT DAILY – HAPPILY! – FOR 15 YEARS
PUCKER UP, BUTTERNUT: SOULFUL WINTER SQUASH SOUP WITH GINGER-APPLE SALSA
TOMATO MEDITATION, AT SUMMER’S END
COOL HAND CUKE: CUCUMBER-YOGURT SOUP WITH MINT, & GRAPES,  WITH A VEGAN VARIATION.
I FEED THIS GUINNESS STOUT CHOCOLATE LAYER CAKE TO MY FATHER ONLY IN MY DREAMS
STILL BEANING AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
A TIMELESS BLUEBERRY COFFEE CAKE, RIGHT NOW. AND, INTRODUCING MONK-FRUIT, BEST-EVER ALTERNATIVE TO SUGAR.
YET ANOTHER  SECRET REVEALED IN MY FAMOUS “RAISIN-PUMPERNICKEL BREAD WITH A SECRET”

More Posts from this Category

Dinner with Dragonwagon

PUCKER UP, BUTTERNUT: SOULFUL WINTER SQUASH SOUP WITH GINGER-APPLE SALSA
COOL HAND CUKE: CUCUMBER-YOGURT SOUP WITH MINT, & GRAPES,  WITH A VEGAN VARIATION.
I FEED THIS GUINNESS STOUT CHOCOLATE LAYER CAKE TO MY FATHER ONLY IN MY DREAMS
STILL BEANING AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

More Posts from this Category

Rouses Markets Features Crescent’s Ultimate Veggie Burger

Rouses Markets Features Crescent’s Ultimate Veggie Burger

Works In Progress Spring 2019 Group

Works In Progress Spring 2019 Group

 for children:

A NAPPA Gold Winner
NAPPA


"... like a warm luminescent blanket at bedtime... softly lulling." -- New York Times


"(With) weary animals, Dragonwagon offers an “alphabet of ways to sleep,” smoothly working in some alliteration..."
- Publishers Weekly (starred review)


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Until Just Moistened

Until Just Moistened

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