The benefits of writing by hand abound, even if my penmanship can’t quite keep up.

Justin X. M. Corriss offers a quick look at the thought process behind the evolution of Telgora’s capital city, Cobra’s Hood.

It’s the power of creation which makes me write earlier of the description of The French Dispatch as a love letter to journalism as only somewhat accurate. It’s a love letter to creativity.

Lessons in fear and in hope, in the environment and its resources, in the respect owed both to otherworldly cultures and familiar enemies, and in the power of stories themselves all swirl on the sands of Arrakis. Dune. Desert Planet. It’s Dune, an experience larger than any one life, planet, or story.

Only I can tell this the way I can. If I didn’t believe that someone’s individual voice could make a difference, then I certainly wouldn’t be writing novels. Part of the beauty of that is taking comfort or finding inspiration in someone else’s words, just hearing or reading that someone else is experiencing or has experienced something similar.

So, I know the month’s not over, but in an effort to catch up numerically I wrote over fifty haikus so far in September.

Plain Bad Heroines, by Emily M. Danforth, has been one of the most engrossing, twisting, romantic (and Romantic), and horrifying reads of my year.

The beauty, the heartbreak, and the soul of Hadestown? Hope. Maybe it will turn out this time.

Cooking is, if anything else, hopeful.

Patterns are part of nature, and the lessons learned in one particular time and place can often be applied elsewhere.