Author Archives: jgville
Mayors’ Caucuses as Regional Planning Tool / Jun, 19
I attended the opening session of the CEOs for Cities Connected City conference this morning. The conference is being held in my hometown of Cleveland, at the new Ernst & Young tower and Aloft hotel. The shimmering waters of Lake Erie beyond a window full of mayflies provided the dramatic backdrop. The most exciting part […]
A Forgotten Flight to Easter Island / Jun, 18
I’ve been re-reading Katherine Routledge’s The Mysteries of Easter Island lately. Routledge was a British aristocrat who, with her husband, sailed from England to Easter Island in 1914 to conduct one of the first ethnographic and archaeological surveys of the island. It’s thanks to her that we know as much as we do about the […]
Show Your Work! / Jun, 17
Website as Sandbox I started reading Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon this afternoon. I really liked his last book, Steal Like an Artist, and this one’s proving even more helpful to me. It’s why I’m back on my blog today after neglecting it for a couple of months! Here are the specific words that […]
Giveaway Time! / Mar, 31
Hey everyone! A chance to win a free copy of Writing Without Hiding over at Goodreads. 🙂 Goodreads Book Giveaway Writing Without Hiding by Justin Glanville Giveaway ends April 30, 2014. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win
The wonder of Cleveland’s indie bookstores / Mar, 26
Last night I went to Mac’s Backs Books on Coventry Road to drop off copies of Writing Without Hiding. The place was a hive of activity. Upstairs, a new writer’s group was meeting. Downstairs, people browsed for books — some undoubtedly on their way to or from a deliciously gloppy meal at Tommy’s. The checkout […]
Meet Cute #20: Unappreciated Rock Star X and I / Feb, 28
Note: This is an early draft of a personal essay. The final meet cute in my month-long experiment! Thanks for reading. For about half of my 20s, I worked as a news researcher and then a reporter for The Associated Press in New York. I loved the arts. So I often asked for assignments to […]
Meet Cute #19: Gavalier and the Dragon / Feb, 27
Gavalier had never been more afraid. He snaked toward the dragon cave on his armor-clad belly, sword at the ready. A huge boulder lay at the cave entrance. From around its edges tendrils of steam escaped. The steam was the breath of FluvĂ©, the dragon that had tormented Gavalier’s town of Rouen for decades. Other […]
Meet Cute #18: The Hamster and The Chair of Freedom / Feb, 26
Whiskers the Hamster clung to the top rung of her cage, her front claws and legs trembling with effort. The view through the cage’s side wall was a familiar one. It was of The Child’s bedroom, done up in frilly pinks and pastel greens. There were a bed, and a desk, and several chairs. Whiskers […]
Meet Cute #17: Weetabix and Milk / Feb, 25
Weetabix felt so impossibly dry, a crackling sensation in her whole-grain wheat threads. She was sitting, alone, in a bowl on a kitchen counter in a Midwestern home. It was a winter morning, the thirsty air sucking up all moisture. She longed for the moderate humidity of the Weetabix box, where her former companions remained. […]
Meet Cute #16: Betsy and Trader Joe’s / Feb, 24
Betsy pulled into the parking lot of Trader Joe’s. She turned to her boyfriend, Carl, who was humming a pop song — that one by Daft Punk, she thought — in the passenger seat. “Well, we’re here,” she said. “Excited?” “I am! Thanks, babe.” Betsy aimed her Toyota Yaris down a row of cars, looking […]
Meet Cute #15: The Ice Dancers / Feb, 21
I met Lisa only a few years after my memories begin. I was seven, and she was eight. Before that I remember only a few things. The train set I got for Christmas when I was six, or pouting about going to Sunday school. At the time I met her, I had vague notions, fueled […]
Meet Cute #14: The Banker and the Femme Fatale / Feb, 20
The hotel clerk didn’t have my reservation. Nor did she have an empty room. “I am sorry, sir,” she said. “We are completely booked. I am happy to make some phone calls –” “But it’s high season!” I said. “Everywhere’s booked!” “Perhaps someone made a cancellation.” “It’s the snowiest January on the East Coast since […]