9 keys to achieving your artistic goals? no! way more!

eric maisel’s new book making your creative mark promises nine keys to achieving your artistic goals. that’s a lie. the book literally chimes and jingles with keys. the last eleven pages alone has 99 of them, for example these 10: one of the best ways to help yourself create every day is to craft a starting… Continue reading 9 keys to achieving your artistic goals? no! way more!

“invisible driving”: a memoir of mania and depression

here, finally, is a review long promised, of alister mcharg’s extraordinary memoir, invisible driving. this book, says alistair, reads with the urgency of a novel. my work delivers a wild and hilarious thrill ride through the misunderstood, phantasmagorical world of manic depression, providing both a visceral sense of the experience and a thoughtful context for… Continue reading “invisible driving”: a memoir of mania and depression

creativity and mental health – a twitter chat

today i had the honour of moderating the weekly mental health and social media chat (“#mhsm”) on twitter. these are always such interesting conversations! our topic today was “creativity and the arts”. here is a slightly abridged transcript: moritherapy: welcome to the weekly #mhsm chat about #mentalhealth and social media. today’s topic: creativity and the… Continue reading creativity and mental health – a twitter chat

writers festival

here are some of the events i’m considering going to at vancouver’s annual writers festival. 33 old friends linwood barclay ontario gail bowen saskatchewan quintin jardine united kingdom host: the honourable larry w. campbell thu, oct 21, 8:00pm revue stage $19.00 (buy tickets online) one of the draws for aficionados of crime fiction is the… Continue reading writers festival

mental health camp recap #2

here’s another report from mental health camp. for some reason, i just can’t bring myself to get all official about it and write it from the point of view of the organizer, so i’ll write it from my personal point of view. so here are a few fragments, which do not do justice to the… Continue reading mental health camp recap #2

8 from google

my brain is still only functioning at 42.718% capacity (as opposed to the usual 60 7/8th) so i don’t find myself to be able to say much. what little brain power i had went to work today and another fabulous mental health chat on twitter. but i feel guilty for not blogging enough so i… Continue reading 8 from google

free-form writing frenzy #4: motivate or mayonnaise?

free-form writing prompt #4: are you motivated? are you motivated? are you motivated? are you motivated? are you motivated yet???? sounds like some frenzied sports coach. yuk. i don’t WANNA be motivated. so there. hows DEM apples, as t would say. it sounds like someone with a whip. i don’t really like whips. slave driver.… Continue reading free-form writing frenzy #4: motivate or mayonnaise?

free-form writing frenzy #2: how soft can you swim?

“however small it is on the surface, it is four thousand miles deep” – that’s elizabeth’s 5-minute writing prompt for today. here’s what i came up with: wow, that’s far. how much is that? i have to think in metres. four thousand times 1.6 is … is … 4,000, 2,000 and 400 that’s 6,400 metres… Continue reading free-form writing frenzy #2: how soft can you swim?

blogging yourself home – part 2

in my last MentalHealthCamp post, we started talking about what the word “home” means to us. the wordle image here illustrates what some of the commenters in that post said, as well as what was mentioned during the workshop at MentalHealthCamp. what happens when you are in this good home, and you’re going through a… Continue reading blogging yourself home – part 2