Writing Without a Parachute


Book Description

Writing Without a Parachute: The Art of Freefall shows both beginning and experienced writers how to get the thinking mind to step aside, so that writing becomes truly creative - a vulnerable and open-hearted engagement with the moment. Here for the first time, writing teacher Barbara Turner-Vesselago shares in print the method by which, for almost 30 years, she has helped hundreds of writers to publish fiction, memoir, non-fiction and poetry worldwide. By means of five simple precepts, she leads the writer step by step into real trust in writing through the art of Freefall: invoking the courage to fall without a parachute into the words as they come. This book can be used for inspiration, as a reference, or as a sustained, twelve-month course in writing. It will help all writers to connect with their deepest intention in writing, and to write with greater authority and grace.




Freefall


Book Description




Coming Home to Story


Book Description

Stories take us into other worlds so that we may experience our own more deeply. Master storyteller Geoff Mead brings the reader inside the experience of telling and listening to a story. He shows how stories and storytelling engage our imaginations, strengthen communities and bring adventure and joy into our lives. The narrative is interspersed with consummate retellings of traditional tales from all over the world.




Write Now & Write On, Grades 6-12


Book Description

From social media to school success—take student writing to the next level! Your students may not realize it, but they’re already writers. All those informal text messages, Instagram captions, and Facebook posts have given them skills they can use as a springboard to the formal, content-specific writing they’ll need for success in school, college, and careers. The key, of course, is practice—plus a little guidance from you. And you’ll be ready, no matter what subject you teach, because this essential reference is packed with relevant, contemporary teaching strategies that are easily customizable to work across content areas. Inside, you’ll find: Engaging exercises based in the kinds of writing students already do Versatile "parachute writings"—quick bursts of practice to drop into a day’s lesson Strategies for introducing academic vocabulary and making it stick Skill-boosting strategies for successful summarizing and using textual evidence Variations specific to all disciplines and content areas Students should be writing daily, in all their classes, and they should be writing a lot, both inside and outside school. With this practical guide, you’ll be ready to help them up their writing game—and make literacy relevant, valuable, and authentic.




Jump Without a Parachute


Book Description

Are you unhappy with your career, feel stuck and don't know how to move forward? Or do you often tell yourself that you will just stick out your current (unhappy) job or career path until retirement because you've invested time and/or your job just pays too well to leave?The secret to understanding why we sacrifice our personal happiness within an unhappy career lives in our past. And it is never too late to figure it out. Cory Calvin had an epiphany looking out of the office window as a successful corporate strategy executive for a Fortune 50 company daydreaming about a different life. He realized the past ten years of unhappiness was a result of certain beliefs he had held since an early age, yet quickly figured out these beliefs hindered his path forward. In Jump Without A Parachute, Cory shares the lessons he learned after leaving his 16-year corporate career behind and took a leap into the unknown. He decided to jump without knowing all of the answers like "How will I make money? How will I save for retirement? How will I have health benefits? What do I want to do?" Those unanswered questions are the parachute strings that will help us land safely and oftentimes hold us back to taking the leap.He decided to jump without a parachute. And now Cory is living a life of ultimate happiness, earning a living doing exactly what he loves doing every day. Are you ready to live your best life and take the leap?




How Do Parachutes Work?


Book Description

Parachutes can be used for emergency landings. But they can also be used for flying fun! Who packs a parachute? And how does its light fabric keep you afloat? Discover the answers inside this book!




Silk Parachute


Book Description

A WONDROUS NEW BOOK OF MCPHEE'S PROSE PIECES—IN MANY ASPECTS HIS MOST PERSONAL IN FOUR DECADES The brief, brilliant essay "Silk Parachute," which first appeared in The New Yorker a decade ago, has become John McPhee's most anthologized piece of writing. In the nine other pieces here— highly varied in length and theme—McPhee ranges with his characteristic humor and intensity through lacrosse, long-exposure view-camera photography, the weird foods he has sometimes been served in the course of his reportorial travels, a U.S. Open golf championship, and a season in Europe "on the chalk" from the downs and sea cliffs of England to the Maas valley in the Netherlands and the champagne country of northern France. Some of the pieces are wholly personal. In luminous recollections of his early years, for example, he goes on outings with his mother, deliberately overturns canoes in a learning process at a summer camp, and germinates a future book while riding on a jump seat to away games as a basketball player. But each piece—on whatever theme—contains somewhere a personal aspect in which McPhee suggests why he was attracted to write about the subject, and each opens like a silk parachute, lofted skyward and suddenly blossoming with color and form.




How To Talk About Writing


Book Description

With insight and clarity, Barbara Turner-Vesselago distils the essentials of ‘How To Talk About Writing’ into six revolutionary discoveries. This book provides invaluable advice for all who long to respond constructively to writers who seek their input, but who don’t know how or where to begin. Seasoned writing mentors and editors will be inspired to abandon old paradigms of editorial criticism. Those new to giving feedback will find straightforward tips—easy to comprehend and instantly rewarding to apply. Barbara Turner-Vesselago is the author of two successful writing books and a mentor to hundreds of published authors worldwide. Informative and user-friendly, this is a vital guide for writers’ groups, university seminars, and even for frank and informal one-on-one discussions between friends.




Freefall into Fiction


Book Description

Barbara Turner-Vesselago's first book, Writing Without a Parachute, showed writers how to fall in love with writing. This new book builds on this experience and encourages writers to pursue their work with intention and without inhibition. Freefall into Fiction: Finding Form is designed to help writers, step-by-step, to create publishable short stories, novels and memoirs by finding their own unique balance between the exploration offered by Freefall Writing and the requirements of each particular genre. This book penetrates deep inside the writing process where that balancing act takes place.




What Color Is Your Parachute? Guide to Rethinking Resumes


Book Description

The first resume book from the What Color Is Your Parachute? career guru Richard Bolles. Resumes get an average of eight seconds of attention before going in the trash—or getting on the shortlist. That’s just one of the findings reported here, as legendary career expert Richard N. Bolles presents new research about resumes in a guide that summarizes everything job-hunters and career-changers need to know about this essential tool. This timely resource features the latest research on important resume topics such as key words, soft skills, scanning software, social media, and online posting. Bolles argues that on the basis of what we now know, we need to rethink what a resume is—and how it should be written. He details the words that must be avoided, and the words that must be used, on a resume that wins you interviews. This slim volume distills a huge amount of information down to its very essence. Armed with tips and shortcuts based on the author’s decades of experience, you can craft a resume and cover letter that will stand out to your dream employers—and increase your chances of getting interviews and landing jobs.