Life barreled over all of my well-built routines the last couple of weeks. Readying the house for showings and readying myself for Listen to Your Mother while trying to keep the kids on some tiny thread of their normal days meant everything I do for myself tumbled into a pile in the back of my…
Category Archives: Editorials
Editing and Selling Houses
We’re considering putting our house on the market. I say considering because if I say we are putting our house on the market, it means this incredible list of tasks does, in fact, have to be completed instead of being a suggestion of things to do this spring. As I pull books off bookshelves to…
Whispers and Light
We want to send our love and energy to Boston and to all who have been affected by the horror and tragedy that occurred. If writing helps you, please write, and if your words are locked up in sadness or confusion take the time to take care of yourself, your families, and your emotions. The…
Creativity is a Muscle
I’ve been working a short-term contract job for the last two weeks. I’ve been neglecting my blog, neglecting my novel, neglecting my social media. I said to a friend in a conversation yesterday that I felt like my imagination was atrophying. It was meant as a joke, but a day later it still rings true….
Short Stories and the Beauty of Spring
Short stories blink and twinkle, a small opportunity for writers to find something like spring. Novels can stretch ahead of you like a long winter, excitement and beauty wrapped in layers of coats and scarves, its magic found in its complexity. Flash fiction is a glimpse of sunshine, but a short story offers the writer…
Let Them Make a Mess
Months ago I started organizing my work space. I bought binders and bins and envisioned creating a tiny oasis in the corner of my living room in which I could be productive in spurts throughout the day and longer periods after the kids went to bed. The chair is just about the perfect height for…
The Cobblestone Path
None of us need the reminder that there is no one path to “become” a writer. “Writer” isn’t a destination, a town nestled along a picturesque route where words work as currency and reading is considered a reason for blowing off even the most concrete plans. We know that writing is something we do, something…
How Do You Remember?
Lost Highway was the first David Lynch film I saw, curled in a armchair in my not-yet-husband’s basement room at Michigan State. When Bill Pullman talked about his aversion to video cameras, preferring his remembered perception of events to a concrete record, I knew it didn’t bode well for his reliability as a character. At…
The Importance of a Foundation
Their towers climbed through the air of our living room, LEGO pieces snapping into place atop each other. Eventually small fingers would haphazardly add a piece too large for the single width tower, and their word would tumble to the ground. My gentle suggestions of starting with a wider base, of strengthening the bottom portion…
Great Writing and Infinite Possibility
After Mandy wrote about great writers and their personal struggles, we chatted for a bit about what makes a writer great. A definition alluded us, and as Cam chimed in with her opinions, it became clear that each of us have our own little columns of “great writing criteria” in our heads — and they’re…