Comments on: Thomas Sullivan: WRITING NAKED http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2009/01/15/thomas-sullivan-writing-naked/ Just another Storytellers Unplugged weblog Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:18:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Thomas Sullivan http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2009/01/15/thomas-sullivan-writing-naked/comment-page-1/#comment-541 Thomas Sullivan Thu, 07 May 2009 02:37:40 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=2291#comment-541 The pleasure is mine, Kelly, and your feedback on a column that I thought was history is itself inspiring to me. I will send you my newsletter each month, if that's all right, and hope you find it equally enjoyable... -- Sully The pleasure is mine, Kelly, and your feedback on a column that I thought was history is itself inspiring to me. I will send you my newsletter each month, if that’s all right, and hope you find it equally enjoyable…

– Sully

]]> By: Kelly W. Ayar http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2009/01/15/thomas-sullivan-writing-naked/comment-page-1/#comment-542 Kelly W. Ayar Wed, 06 May 2009 19:13:46 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=2291#comment-542 Thomas, I have been reading your blog for quite some time now and this is the first time I comment on one of your posts. I just want to say I love the way you write, you really inspire me. Thanks! Thomas, I have been reading your blog for quite some time now and this is the first time I comment on one of your posts. I just want to say I love the way you write, you really inspire me. Thanks!

]]> By: Thomas Sullivan http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2009/01/15/thomas-sullivan-writing-naked/comment-page-1/#comment-540 Thomas Sullivan Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:34:23 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=2291#comment-540 You've got me thinking now, and maybe writing is a kind of heightened form of honesty. That old saw about writers using lies to tell truths is maybe making that very point. The elaboration used to heighten a central truth is like a magnifying glass that reveals detail, but no matter how much you use that elaboration to effect, you must have an essential truth at the core. I've always believed that great actors, clowns and artists have to be firmly grounded in reality in order to successfully take liberties with it. In any event, thank you for believing in my honesty. For all my obfuscations, truth is paramount for me. Sometimes that can be painfully difficult, because most people live the appearances of things rather than the truths within them. I guess that's why I call myself a romantic idealist. Sully You’ve got me thinking now, and maybe writing is a kind of heightened form of honesty. That old saw about writers using lies to tell truths is maybe making that very point. The elaboration used to heighten a central truth is like a magnifying glass that reveals detail, but no matter how much you use that elaboration to effect, you must have an essential truth at the core. I’ve always believed that great actors, clowns and artists have to be firmly grounded in reality in order to successfully take liberties with it. In any event, thank you for believing in my honesty. For all my obfuscations, truth is paramount for me. Sometimes that can be painfully difficult, because most people live the appearances of things rather than the truths within them. I guess that’s why I call myself a romantic idealist.

Sully

]]> By: susana http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2009/01/15/thomas-sullivan-writing-naked/comment-page-1/#comment-539 susana Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:46:47 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=2291#comment-539 Sully, You always strike me with the right chord its why I bounce off you as I do....no pun intended but I think you must have rubber skin so as to not take all those torn ligaments and broken bones as easily as you do! Don't know how you do it, and then write all you do... Because I know what pain can do to the mind! Having been down that slippery slope of being out there in the wild and having broken many of my bones without having been on a ski slope! Life gets boring if your stuck inside! I get cabin fever! And miss cross country skiing! I never cared for the slopes, and I feel the say way about writing as you do. Keep I honest and open. I guess its why I write! And love other writers, because they stimulate my creativity! And most are honest. A few stuck up and arrogant, but most are honest! You have been a great motivator! Just ... please do NOT tear any more muscles or ligaments and leave the nakedness for the Drs.! But do always stay truthful for its nice when you can trust what someone says! Its what makes a man or woman Great at writing! HONESTY! Susana Sully, You always strike me with the right chord its why I bounce off you as I do….no pun intended but I think you must have rubber skin so as to not take all those torn ligaments and broken bones as easily as you do! Don’t know how you do it, and then write all you do… Because I know what pain can do to the mind! Having been down that slippery slope of being out there in the wild and having broken many of my bones without having been on a ski slope! Life gets boring if your stuck inside! I get cabin fever! And miss cross country skiing! I never cared for the slopes, and I feel the say way about writing as you do. Keep I honest and open. I guess its why I write! And love other writers, because they stimulate my creativity! And most are honest. A few stuck up and arrogant, but most are honest! You have been a great motivator! Just … please do NOT tear any more muscles or ligaments and leave the nakedness for the Drs.! But do always stay truthful for its nice when you can trust what someone says! Its what makes a man or woman Great at writing! HONESTY! Susana

]]> By: Thomas Sullivan http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2009/01/15/thomas-sullivan-writing-naked/comment-page-1/#comment-535 Thomas Sullivan Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:36:11 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=2291#comment-535 Ah, thank God for pen names. But for them we would have to be ourselves and always naked in print! It's fun to put on costumes and assume disguises, and even with a disguise you can be real, because you are still naked underneath. You've written with a wedding dress on and a chef's apron. Maybe the real you is yet to be defined, Jeani. Sully Ah, thank God for pen names. But for them we would have to be ourselves and always naked in print! It’s fun to put on costumes and assume disguises, and even with a disguise you can be real, because you are still naked underneath. You’ve written with a wedding dress on and a chef’s apron. Maybe the real you is yet to be defined, Jeani.

Sully

]]> By: Jeani http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2009/01/15/thomas-sullivan-writing-naked/comment-page-1/#comment-534 Jeani Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:01:28 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=2291#comment-534 From one romantic idealist to another, it may take many more years of your inspirational columns before I'm ready to bare all with fiction. Though I had gotten fairly comfortable using my own name for wedding and etiquette articles, my first year in food writing was under a pen name. (I know, I know, it sounds silly to me too now.) Hey, when writing about food is too revealing for comfort, you know fiction is years away! Hmm . . . unless I drag out that pen name again . . . and keep that laptop firmly in my lap. From one romantic idealist to another, it may take many more years of your inspirational columns before I’m ready to bare all with fiction. Though I had gotten fairly comfortable using my own name for wedding and etiquette articles, my first year in food writing was under a pen name. (I know, I know, it sounds silly to me too now.) Hey, when writing about food is too revealing for comfort, you know fiction is years away! Hmm . . . unless I drag out that pen name again . . . and keep that laptop firmly in my lap.

]]> By: Thomas Sullivan http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2009/01/15/thomas-sullivan-writing-naked/comment-page-1/#comment-533 Thomas Sullivan Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:34:27 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=2291#comment-533 Somehow Susana's comment got posted on this column when it was meant to go on next month's (February). Anyway, I've posted my reply here and also on the February column: Don't know about the bears, but the "bares" just caught up to me, because your comment originally went up on last month's column -- Writing Naked -- somehow. So this month I'm not naked, but I am in a strait jacket of sorts. Dr. Foto (Mark Mavrique) is a funny and talented man, but I'll tango with a rabid wolverine before I'll let him embalm me with bandages. Too many practical jokes that entwine our lives as it is. (For those readers who don't get my free newsletter, Susana is referring to a novelty photo therein with some hysterical taglines -- always happy to send anyone that newsletter every month. It's about life in general and zero literary propaganda, and it always has a half-dozen photos. E-mail me at mn333mn@earthlink.net to get on the list.) Susana, for sure the snowshoes don't slow me down on the kind of rugged terrain I'm getting into lately. Already have a couple hundred miles in and am discovering whole new universes. Thanks for the comment... Sully Somehow Susana’s comment got posted on this column when it was meant to go on next month’s (February). Anyway, I’ve posted my reply here and also on the February column:

Don’t know about the bears, but the “bares” just caught up to me, because your comment originally went up on last month’s column — Writing Naked — somehow. So this month I’m not naked, but I am in a strait jacket of sorts. Dr. Foto (Mark Mavrique) is a funny and talented man, but I’ll tango with a rabid wolverine before I’ll let him embalm me with bandages. Too many practical jokes that entwine our lives as it is. (For those readers who don’t get my free newsletter, Susana is referring to a novelty photo therein with some hysterical taglines — always happy to send anyone that newsletter every month. It’s about life in general and zero literary propaganda, and it always has a half-dozen photos. E-mail me at mn333mn@earthlink.net to get on the list.) Susana, for sure the snowshoes don’t slow me down on the kind of rugged terrain I’m getting into lately. Already have a couple hundred miles in and am discovering whole new universes. Thanks for the comment…

Sully

]]> By: susana http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2009/01/15/thomas-sullivan-writing-naked/comment-page-1/#comment-522 susana Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:25:04 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=2291#comment-522 Best to have a website where you can actually get a response! Hope your healing as fast as you say you are.............wondering if your naked, because of the bandages? Or did the Dr Foto have to actually place you in a strait jacket? I cant see you sitting still or for very long, so I am thinking your not naked, but wish you were? I will bet anything less than a strait jacket wont keep you off those slopes! Snowshoes? They just slow ya down!Hope the bears don't catch you? susana Best to have a website where you can actually get a response! Hope your healing as fast as you say you are………….wondering if your naked, because of the bandages? Or did the Dr Foto have to actually place you in a strait jacket? I cant see you sitting still or for very long, so I am thinking your not naked, but wish you were? I will bet anything less than a strait jacket wont keep you off those slopes! Snowshoes? They just slow ya down!Hope the bears don’t catch you? susana

]]> By: Thomas Sullivan http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2009/01/15/thomas-sullivan-writing-naked/comment-page-1/#comment-538 Thomas Sullivan Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:57:34 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=2291#comment-538 Thanks, Anne. For those of you who don't get my newsletter, Anne is referring to mending from a ski accident a week ago. And I'll update the newsletter here to help answer other e-mails I'm receiving about that. MRI came back with the verdict of a torn rotator cuff -- sawbones emphasized, "...I mean a really large tear." Surgery scheduled, and recovery should be complete. Other details in the newsletter, which is now posted on my website under News & Articles ( www.thomassullivanauthor.com ) or you can e-mail me at mn333mn@earthlink.net to get a free one delivered each month. -- Sully Thanks, Anne. For those of you who don’t get my newsletter, Anne is referring to mending from a ski accident a week ago. And I’ll update the newsletter here to help answer other e-mails I’m receiving about that. MRI came back with the verdict of a torn rotator cuff — sawbones emphasized, “…I mean a really large tear.” Surgery scheduled, and recovery should be complete. Other details in the newsletter, which is now posted on my website under News & Articles ( http://www.thomassullivanauthor.com ) or you can e-mail me at mn333mn@earthlink.net to get a free one delivered each month.

– Sully

]]> By: Anne http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2009/01/15/thomas-sullivan-writing-naked/comment-page-1/#comment-537 Anne Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:46:32 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=2291#comment-537 You capsulize concepts so astutely and present them as though grasping them were a "piece of cake." If finding the soulmate is the icing in life, knowing the soul is the essential ingredient for the cake, and being ready to understand the vision in the mirror creates the divine union where cake is covered in icing or is no longer naked. I like the image of seeing a corroboration of all one's values and ideals. Gotta remember that. Back to writing nakedly, then connecting to the body, mind and soul requires: a body that experiences life fully awake; a mind that is driven by kind interpretation of what's real and possible through imagination; and a soul that dreams and is confident that the ugly will be overpowered by the honesty and beauty of truth and knowledge. Hope that you mend quickly, your voice is appreciated and needed. You capsulize concepts so astutely and present them as though grasping them were a “piece of cake.” If finding the soulmate is the icing in life, knowing the soul is the essential ingredient for the cake, and being ready to understand the vision in the mirror creates the divine union where cake is covered in icing or is no longer naked. I like the image of seeing a corroboration of all one’s values and ideals. Gotta remember that.

Back to writing nakedly, then connecting to the body, mind and soul requires: a body that experiences life fully awake; a mind that is driven by kind interpretation of what’s real and possible through imagination; and a soul that dreams and is confident that the ugly will be overpowered by the honesty and beauty of truth and knowledge.

Hope that you mend quickly, your voice is appreciated and needed.

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