Today's topic is one dear to my heart...Beat literature history! I've been interested since someone I worked with at a coffeeshop in high school moved to San Francisco and gave me a Jack Kerouac 4-tape box set as a parting gift. But, that's another story for another day... Many people know Neal Cassady as a main figure and a primary influence of the Beat movement in literature—Neal was highly respected and loved by Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, among others. But Neal’s writings are not as well known as those of his contemporaries, and many people do not know that Neal’s writing was actually the spark for Jack Kerouac’s revolutionary novel writing style of the seminal Beat text, On the Road . In fact, it was one of Neal’s letters to Jack—an off-the-cuff play-by-play of his experiences surrounding a particular love interest named Joan Anderson—that inspired Kerouac to change his writing style completely. The recent publication of The Joan Anderson Letter: The Holy Grail of
Writing teachers throughout my life have told me, "You can't be a good writer if you're not a reader." I used to balk at that, but time has taught me that reading does help with inspiration and getting the writing juices flowing. However, reading has become a challenge for me since having two kids and, let's be honest, the constant availability of scrolling through social media. I don't get large chunks of time during the day, and if I do, I'm probably running around trying to do errands rather than sitting down reading. So, I need to improvise and read in snippets throughout the day. I keep books in the bathroom. I keep a book on the kitchen counter and read while I eat lunch. I stand at my bookcase while my kids are watching videos. I keep one next to my child's bed so I can read a few lines while she brushes her teeth. I keep paper books around so I can read and so my kids can see me reading. I don't like digital books; they don't give me