If you’ve been following the Writing Rules series, you might have clicked on this blog post with some skepticism. Every “rule” so far has been a phrase, something catchy to teach new writers a simple trick to improve their prose. This rule is a little different; instead of one writing “rule” to pick apart, there…
Chinese teas make up the bulk of my tea shelves. As the top tea-producing country in the world, that isn’t much of a surprise. Our shelves mirror the market, and we become familiar with the most accessible teas we can buy. Sure I have some teas from Taiwan, a couple from India, and the other…
September’s book literally fell into my lap. I started planning this blog about a year ago. I created lists of topics, themes, pictures, and, most importantly, books. The book list ebbed and flowed. Some titles stood steadfast from their initial inclusion; others fell victim to the backspace key within an hour. A few books stayed…
About halfway through Americanah, we see the origin of Ifemelu’s blog, “Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black”. She makes her first post and checks the stats a little later. Nine people have read it. She panics and takes the post down, editing and modifying it…
Editing is hell. It may look peaceful from the outside. A writer sitting at their desk with a red pen, manuscript spread out, marking and noting along the margins. Maybe there’s a cup of tea steaming next to them or some gentle snowfall at the windowsill. Cleaning up your work sounds satisfying, but if you…
When I started my tea journey, I read everything I could on tea tasting. Eager to expand my range of tastes and flavors, I scoured reviews, reading descriptions like “round umami flavor” or “notes of caramel”. I’d order the teas, brew them up, and take that first anticipated sip only to be disappointed. The flavors…
Last week I read an excerpt from Charles Baxter’s Wonderlands: Essays on the Life of Literature. In the excerpt, Baxter talks about building characters through lists of objective, detailed facts and material possessions. The lists he recommends do not allow for character personality judgments such as “She is determined” or “He is shy”, opting for…
“In my peer education courses I was taught to say that I am a person with schizoaffective disorder. "Person-first language" suggests that there is a person in there somewhere without the delusion and the rambling and the catatonia.But what if there isn't? What happens if I see my disordered mind as a fundamental part of…
Everyone has pet peeves. Little, innocuous offenses that immediately annoy us or, in some cases, unholy rage. The range of offenses is wide, from bad drivers to slow walkers to open-mouthed chewing (I feel like I might be triggering some ambient rage just from mentioning some of these). Whatever your pet peeves are, they…
When I started Tea Reads back in January, the first thing I struck from my vocabulary was the word “review”. I had no interest in placing books on a numerical scale or following standard book review formats. To describe my thoughts on the books we read each month, I settled on the word “reflection”. It…
Tea Reads 