Terrie Samundra is an independent filmmaker and mother, currently serving as the Sponsorship & Marketing Manager for the Slamdance Film Festival. Her films have received numerous awards including the National Geographic All Roads Seed Grant, The Guttman Award, The Princess Grace Award, The Los Angeles Indian Film Festival’s award for Best Short, Best Narrative...
Here’s a collection of rad writing resources/workshops/classes that are offered around the area and the internetz Sacramento/Davis peeps! Kate McCleary–friend and author extraordinaire–will begin offering writing classes in January of 2011. A most magical and brilliant writer, she is also someone who teaches from the heart while maintaining a nice edge. Find all the...
I don’t know about everyone else, but for some reason, I always tend to notice animals more frequently in the fall time. Raccoons scurry through my back yard in the middle of the night, birds peck at shriveling berries and dying leaves in hopes of spiking big juicy worms that lie underneath, squirrels gathering...
Last week, I wrote about the beauty of being idle, and of slowing down and doing “nothing.” While I haven’t completely mastered the art of being idle (thank you ingrained Puritan work ethic), I have learned to reserve at least an hour a day to take a walk, read for pleasure at a leisurely pace, or just sit...
Did you know that in some cultures working more than four hours a day might be considered laughable? This week, I’m reading a book called Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream by William Powers. An exploration of the lives of “wildcrafters” in North Carolina, this book is...
Okay, so this post is going to really out me as a super nerd, but I’m going to make my confession anyway. The past week or so, I’ve been totally obsessed with this video game called “Plants Vs. Zombies.” What began as an innocent attempt to ‘bond’ with my husband, as turned into me...
After spending a year in my late teens/early twenties rushing through the hectic streets of West Hollywood to my shitty job as a retail sales clerk in The Beverly Center and being frightened nearly to the point of urinating in my pants by the excessive exposure to horrendous plastic surgery jobs, I swore I...
We had our second workshop on Saturday and one of my favorite writing exercises was one that I “borrowed” from Chris DeLorenzo, who runs the Laguna Writer’s Workshops. I love making lists, and I love hearing other people’s lists, so it’s no surprise that this was one of my favorites. Below, I have posted...
Currently, I’m reading a book called Ignore Everybody And 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod. A cartoonist among other things, Macleod has been blogging creativity for quite a while on his blog Gaping Void. Here is my favorite sentiment so far: “Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in...
Last fall, still erupting from an overabundance of fear and self-doubt from suddenly finding myself smack-dab in the middle of the “creative world”, I awkwardly mentioned my long-burning desire to play the banjo and mandolin to two female musician friends. “My old lover took back the banjo for the third and final time,” I...