TreeHouseLetter

True story from the SMA--Sergeant Major of the Army Michael A. Grinston--who spoke at the Army Ten-Miler. A man with 35 years of service in the Army and a half dozen deployments shares his wisdom on service with grit and grace.

In her new book, Write For Your Life , Anna Quindlen argues for the importance of the diarist, such as the secret yet eternal life of Anne Frank. She ruminates on the doctor, the student, the gangster, the child, the parent. Love letters. Queen Elizabeth “spoke through her handwriting.” Writing is a human endeavor, for all of us, from criminal to royal. Learn why writing is one of the most preciou...

Just like song, for writing to work it must have rhythm. This has taken me a long time to learn . I came across the idea in Haruki Murakami’s memoir, Absolutely on Music. This book is about a series of conversations with the former conductor of the Boston Symphony, Seiji Ozawa. The novelist meets the maestro. They talk. Learn what the novelist has to say about writing and rhythm and decide if pros...

My Vietnamese side of the family are foodies, planning visits and life around meals. Writers focus on the visual and often forget the other senses, taste and smell and sound and touch. Learn about Michelle Zauner's megahit-memoir and how it resonates with this reader, at times pitch perfect. 

Maybe the better way to think of this is , why you listen to or read TreeHouseLetter . For me, it’s about why I write. Which, are two sides of the same coin. Why do you Write? Who do you write for? 

Society obsesses with youth as if beauty were the monopoly of the young. Yet, wisdom and truth which come with age are beautiful in their own right and something we are quick to dismiss. The old and the very young have always held sway for me because of bald and unerring candor, and the lack of affectation. The title quote is from Ursula Le Guin's No Time to Spare . Learn what Le Guin and former P...

What book do you believe is that good that you could hunker down and spend the remainder of your days with it? The absolute pinnacle of lexicography in one volume. Word work and how it improves writing. The Professor, the Madman, and Noah Webster. What is the singular trait common to each man and does each of us have the ability to tap into it? 

True story of the iconic investor. When is offensive language appropriate and effective? Ursula Le Guin on the last two swear words, George Patton on eloquent profanity, and Munger with the shock value of a well timed one-liner.

What is a good fragment and why use it in your writing?  Passages from Mary Oliver's essay, Upstream, and guidance from Priscilla Long. Two book recommendations. 

The march back is a 14 mile ruck with full gear and M4 rifle for 1200 new cadets in the West Point Class of 2026. It is the culminating event of Cadet Basic Training at West Point. Learn about the march, the Long Gray Line, and listen to life-changing stories. 

A visit to Augusta's Indie Book Store and local bakery. Learn about the cult pencil's limited volumes Blackwing 651 named for Bruce Lee, a prize purchase at The Book Tavern with insight on a fighting triad and writing. 

Word of the week. Dig into the word's roots--in architecture, psychology, philosophy, even philately--for a surprising and stirring take-away on function and beauty. 

Pitch is purely a psychological construct. If so, why do we love the music we love? A philosopher, a neuroscientist, a dog, and Roy Orbison help us understand why. 

In her 2019 collection, Alison Lurie wrote an essay, Their Harvard , which describes her life at Radcliffe in the 1940s. It has fascinating and humorous insight on her experience as a second-class citizen, a poorer relation to the men of Harvard.  She also includes a passage, shocking by today's standards, about the men and war.  

My latest canine addition, Simba, had his Dog DNA analyzed. What's in the analysis and what does that tell me about Simba? Word play on his breed types as a new designer breed: Bel-Ger-Sam-Box-Sky, BelGerBoxSky. Does it make a difference now that we "know" what he is? Embark public profile, Breed Reveal, Simba's Family Tree. We did learn why he has a curly tail and one floppy ear, his expected wei...

Reading a year of love stories, with examples of simile and metaphor. Why an apt metaphor makes the writing sing. Two book recommendations: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie and Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote. The music in the prose. 

For fame, for money?  The creative process of writing and the incredible joy it can unlock. 

The soldier's pack list today includes items for women. Learn about the four types of paragraphs and the rites of passage for a family with generational service in the armed forces. What is the climactic paragraph or the turnabout paragraph? See how to create interest through suspense, concrete details, and idea development. 

Listen to "new" or lesser-known poems by Poet Warrior John McCrae, best known for his poem In Flanders Fields . 

An old carriage house as a music school and 17 years of piano recitals leave lasting impressions . Learn about the wisdom and lessons gleaned from someone who loves words and notes, how the music lasts and how sentence construction lends meaning to the experience. Writer's Toolbox on the series sentence and the infinitive phrase . 

Willie Nelson is 89 and still touring. What can we learn from his writing, his short memoir, and a life on the road?

What do puppies and children have in common? Learn about what Ross Gay describes as terror and delight in children, why the two coexist side by side. This truth in raising children applies to puppies or a full lunar eclipse. 

A list of books for Mother's Day, for ages 9 to 99. 

A great speech is one we remember. Notes on the 3 stories McRaven shares at the observatory of the One World Trade Center, or Freedom Tower, and what makes it lasting. An event which commemorates the 11th anniversary of Operation Neptune's Spear, the mission to capture Osama Bin Laden.

These tales pay homage to Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau published 1947 in French, English Translation 1958. Queneau was later elected to highly prestigious Academie Goncourt. In it, Queneau retells an unexceptional tale ninety-nine times: in Cockney, Haiku, sonnet, among scores of others. The examples in this TreeHouseLetter tell a different story but emulate his style: the narrative,...