"I prefer to talk about the meaning in a story rather than the theme of a story. People talk about the theme of a story as if the theme were like the string that a sack of chicken feed is tied with…

Flannery O’Connor was simply masterful in her ability to convey the importance of writing without an agenda. One might say she was a champion of fiction sans subtext, stories void of duplicitous “big ideas”.

From her, and from my writing instructor in college, Aimee Bender, I learned to write fiction that speaks for itself, that takes you there, to that place of discovery, that place of human revelation. When a writer boxes themselves in, or tries to align with some metaphor or hidden conceit, that tends to dismiss their own potential.

I stumbled upon the enclosed link today and just had to share. Follow the link and read the quote from O’Connor. It’s amazing.

infoneer-pulse:

A blogger is entitled to the same free speech protections as a traditional journalist and cannot be liable for defamation unless she acted negligently, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.

Crystal Cox lost a defamation trial in 2011 over a blog post she wrote accusing a bankruptcy trustee and Obsidian Finance Group of tax fraud. A lower court judge had found that Obsidian did not have to prove that Cox acted negligently because Cox failed to submit evidence of her status as a journalist.

But in the ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Cox deserved a new trial, regardless of the fact that she is not a traditional reporter.

» via Reuters

It’s 2014. The distinction between the 4th Estate and the general populace disappeared a long time ago. This is very good news!

Awesome. Rad. Sweet. Good.