WHAT'S ON YOUR DESK?

DOC SEARLS

In fact, most of my desk is on my computer. Which is why I just got a 23-inch screen for my main computer (a laptop).

But since computer-related stuff (computer, printer, screen, scanner) are excluded from this list, here's what's left:

· A couple dozen books, including works by John McPhee (my favorite nonfiction writer and a source of constant inspiration) and George Lakoff (the great linguist and a primary influence on my thinking). 

· A large Grundig Satellit 800 multiband radio. 

· One jar and one can, each filled with pens, pencils and an X-Acto knife or two. 

· A boom microphone and a mixer for podcasts I occasionally record, and to allow me to sound good as a guest on other radio shows and podcasts. 

· Two Cambridge Soundwords speakers, driven by my laptop through a bass unit under the desk. 

· A spread of correspondence, magazines and other printed source materials for whatever I might be writing at the time. Right now this mess is comprised mostly of literature and business cards collected from visits earlier to the Consumer Electronics Show and Macworld. 

Doc's bio is far too extensive to list in this little spot. Go here to learn all about him.

OUR CURRENT CONTEST

Great storytellers are read, not seen. They let their characters do the talking and the listening and the getting in and out of trouble. Still, no law says they can't make a cameo appearance. Are you ready for your close-up? Give us a short story in which you, the author, are directly involved. You may be the main character or a minor character but—and here's the catch—you may not use First Person narrative. That means no I or me. For this story, you are looking at yourself from the outside. 

Entry Fee: None
Length: Up to 700 words

Complete details.

FINDING NEVERLAND
(2004)

Written by:
David Magee


Starring:
Johnny Depp
Kate Winslet

Writer J. M. Barrie befriends four children with no father, and is inspired to write a story about children who don't want to 
grow up: Peter Pan

Weary - exhausted; physically or mentally fatigued."
     "So shall he waste his weary soldiers."

Wary – on guard, cautious or watchful.
   "You will never convince that wary feline to eat from your hand."

A MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF WRITING

 In 1911, a young man left for Exeter College, Oxford, where he immersed himself in the Classics. One of the poems he discovered was the Crist of Cynewulf, and he was particularly amazed by the cryptic couplet: Eálá Earendel engla beorhtast Ofer middangeard monnum sended. (Hail Earendel brightest of angels, over Middle Earth sent to men.)

Years later, the student became a teacher. One day, while grading exams, he felt moved to scribble a line: In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

He couldn't forget it. And he began to ask questions. What was a hobbit? What sort of a hole did it live in? Why did it live in a hole? On and on. From this investigation grew a tale that he told to his children, and even passed around on paper. 

In 1936 the unfinished manuscript came into the hands of an employee of the publishing firm of George Allen and Unwin. She asked J.R.R. Tolkien to finish it, and presented the complete story to Stanley Unwin, then Chairman of the firm. He tried it out on his ten year old son, who loved it, and published it in 1937. 

The Hobbit was an immediate success, and has not been out of children's recommended reading lists since. 

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