If you are interested in the craft of writing, Steve Almond's book is a must-have. Written with sincerity and verve and a sense of humor, Truth Is The Arrow is also a memoir of Steve's writing career including time spent at Florida International University and in John Dufresne's Friday Night Writers. Steve Almond is the author of a dozen books of fiction and nonfiction, including All The Secrets of the World and Candyfreak. This current book is a masterpiece of shared insights from thirty years of writing, teaching and workshop mentoring. Buy it    HERE at Amazon or here at Books&Books. Clicking either link takes you to the site. The chapter on rendering the inner life stands out:

From page 183: "To focus on the inner life today--to read books, to imaging with no ulterior agenda, to reflect on painful or confusing experiences--is to defy the clamoring edicts of our age, the buy messages, the endless pleas for followers and likes.

Writers have to find a different way of being in the world. The making of literature is the manner by which we come to understand our inner lives, by which we travel in difficult truth toward elusive mercy, and thereby reaffirm the bonds of human kindness.

I am speaking here of something that goes beyond the fate of our work, or the brief span of our lives. I am speaking of the man, or the woman, who stands in silence at the top of the stairs, just a few seconds longer, feeling the ghost of his beloved mother in his arms, rocking her back and forth, back and forth."

 Relief update:

Now that we're moving into the Winter of our Discontent, I find that what will be needed in the coming months is not hurricane relief,  though that is a major concern for me and all my friends and family. The various agencies helping are getting support and help from millions around the country. But what I see is the danger of an anti-Woke government encouraging prejudice against Art and Artists. You know the new Administration is going to be trying to defund the arts, public broadcasting, libraries, subversive literature as they will define it, and the teaching of classic liberal values. Banning books has already demonstrated that Freedom of Expression is now under fire. Why keep kids from reading the world's greatest literature?

I'm such a sucker for good causes. I do want to Save the World. I want to feed the hungry, house the homeless, heal the sick, clothe the naked, rebuild all the broken homes and businesses. I still buy Biggie Bags from Wendy's for the bums on US 1.  That's a personal thing.

Dedicating a website is a different story. I'm a writer, not a millionaire. I'm a reader, not a politician. What I've learned over these last years is that there is a community of writers and readers who sincerely want to help. Now I see that community is about to be attacked. There will be closings of Liberal Arts programs in every university in America. There will be dedicated teachers and professors fired for teaching the vision of America they grew up with. The networks will be loaded with MAGA propaganda as anyone who opposes that dark vision is prosecuted and harassed. Free elections will cease as we know them, replaced by restricted voting for friends of the Man Who Would Be King. Public health will be at risk for millions of Americans as Anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists take charge of agencies once meant to help. The rich will get richer. By the time the middle class figure out their 401Ks are about to collapse, it will be too late. The people who brought our grandparents the first Great Depression will bring the next. War will be seen as a financial decision, good for the Economy. But will we have any allies?

Of course, I could be wrong. We might be heading into the next Golden Era. America will be great again. 

We'll see. Meanwhile, I will build a website for writers to share with readers, students, teachers and all the artists, all the musicians, all the people who care. Writers4Relief just WOKE up.