John Willingham

A Post-Literate Age Journalism and fiction are both essential to a thriving democracy.

"In 2023 almost half of Americans didn’t finish a single book. Surveys show that a big loser is fiction. Perhaps this plague of illiteracy has played a role in the disappearance of truth and, with it, liberal democracy." George Packer
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Necessary Losses: The Life-Shaping Art of Letting Go “We cannot deeply love anything without becoming vulnerable to loss. And we cannot become separate people, responsible people, connected people, reflective people without some losing and leav…

"We cannot deeply love anything without becoming vulnerable to loss. And we cannot become separate people, responsible people, connected people, reflective people without some losing and leaving and letting go."

On necessary losses: www.themarginalian.org/2023/11/21/n...

“Our age not only does not have a very sharp eye for the almost imperceptible intrusions of grace, it no longer has much feeling for the nature of the violence which precede and follow them.”—Flannery O’Connor

We need an HHS Secretary who respects science and does not make policy based on conspiracy theories.

Vaccines are safe and effective.

Kennedy is threatening the health of our kids and all Americans.

He must resign.

For me, the only good rejections are those very few that provide useful criticism. VERY FEW.

Christopher Stites (@christopherstites) The invitation to Christopher Tolkien’s 21st birthday. Love the bottom lines. Just like a good Hobbit family.

substack.com/@christopher...

Cover to Jess Walter’s novel SO FAR GONE

“We live only as long as someone remembers us. Only as long as someone cares.”

My novel manuscript and my scrap file are briefly exactly the same page count, which means I'm currently writing two words for every one that stays in.

Forgetting — those who have left us, and the parts of ourselves we have left behind — is a kind of death, but we can come back from it through memory and love, which twine the lifeline tethering us to everything that is beautiful and enduring.

www.themarginalian.org/2024/11/21/t...

Historical Fiction Book Lovers | The Last Woman by John Willingham | Facebook The Last Woman by John Willingham. I don’t recall ever reading a book that takes place during the “old west.” It reminded me of Gunsmoke and other cowboy/saloon shows. It was appealing to read...

Another good review of my new novel, The Last Woman....
bit.ly/4122V0w

Here are some advance reviews of my novel The Last Woman from Goodreads....
bit.ly/47jMpNi

One Fine Day: David Byrne Performs His Hymn of Optimism and Countercultural Anthem of Resistance and Resilience with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus “I complete my tasks, one by one. I remove my masks, when I am done…”

If your day could use a burst of delight, listen to David Byrne perform "One Fine Day" with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus: www.themarginalian.org/2020/05/14/o...

“It never really goes away, the longing for the life not lived, because isn’t that part of how we come to know ourselves too? Through what we lack as much as what we have, all we dream but do not hold. Some desires have no resolution”
@madelaine_lucas

The man who had his doctor report that he’s 6’3”, 238 lbs fired the person in charge of reporting labor statistics.

Texas House Democrats flee the state to block a vote on new congressional map Texas Republicans proposed a new map that could give the GOP five more seats in Congress after the 2026 midterm election.

We gotta do what we gotta do to fend off authoritarianism 🤷‍♂️

Monthly reminder: Many people have a book in them, but it takes a special kind of freak to leave the Land of Laziness, cross the Plains of Procrastination and Insecurity Mountain, find the Blade of No One Made You Do This, and use it to cut your chest open and yank that book out.

“Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy.”—F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

❤️

Now Michael, that's the way to listen to this James McMurtry song!

No doubt about it. It's an excellent stimulus to be more creative and to work towards more clarity.

Five Great Quotations about Reading “You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.” – Stephen King“I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has …

#writingtip #writingtips #bravewrite #amwriting #writingcommunity inventingrealityediting.com/2...

So. which Stephen king book are we doing today, folks?

My novel The Last Woman now available for preorder from TCU Press and listed on NetGalley! tcupress.tcu.edu/9780875659343/

Speak Truth.....

Dance festival canceled: NEA withdraws grants to more than a dozen Austin arts groups The NEA sent out an email on Friday night withdrawing grants to hundreds of American arts groups, including more than a dozen in Ausitn.

www.statesman.com/story/news/l...