Welcome to Pairings

You voted with your eyeballs for your favorite Pairings this year ( Thank You! ), and your eyes revealed that my posts about the creative...

Lifesavers: Stable Relations Nubè and Clara   Anna Blake ©2015 Her heart had been broken , in many places, when she threw herself...

David Beheads Goliath, 1650  by Guillaume Courtois [ Public domain via Wikimedia Commons ] When you’re nearing the finish line with...

What RGB Means To Me Here’s what RGB means to me today: My cranky Epson R1800 printer demanded more difficult-to-find $20 ink cartridges...

Ah, elixir of life: I Need Coffee by Jann Alexander ©2014 1. Bring your own coffee. There may be none. Even if there is, there will...

What You Need: An Author Platform by Jann Alexander ©2015 “Platform is a very helpful thing.”   — Karlyn Hixson, St. Martin’s Press  ...

If you have ignored these three simple , but essential, chores to maintain your blog’s health, you’ve ignored them at your peril. The...

Look closely at the logos on the writing machines chosen by famous men for decades. Why trust your precious words to anything other than...

—— I really need a reward. I’ve been immersed in Quickbooks all day (when I wasn’t minding my Twitter feed ) and yesterday (when I...

Though I’m not one of them , advocates of disorganization thrive on it. The truth is that even the most organized among us have lapses in...

When to Stop Art by Jann Alexander ©2014 Hemingway was notoriously negligent with his drinking, his wives and in the end, his own life,...

Having trouble getting into the studio to create? Here are a few tried-and-true tricks I’ve developed. Trot these out when you need that...

When it’s time to play my great deathbed scene on social media, it might just go something like this. Scene: hushed hospital room, sole...

How do daily rituals confine us? And define us? Consider the intertwined rituals  of lobstermen in their pursuit of lobsters, and the...

Skyrocket Your Creativity   Jann Alexander © 2014 “ It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease...

“My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living.” ―  Anaïs Nin Anais Nin by Elsa Dorfman , c. 1970s Though she...

Take a Moment by Jann Alexander © 2014 Finding focus is a challenge. The distractions are limitless, more so because we see lists like...

“Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing. It’s the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As...

Are you possessed by color? For artist Paul Klee, the attraction to color and light was a turning point in his career. On his 1914 visit...

Too Late to Look for the Spear by Jann Alexander © 2013 Royalty-free art is everywhere. Why rip it off?   One of my cherished,...