BLOG

When I was a young woman, I was caught by the expression, “You are what you eat.” I still believe that, and not just in terms of the...

To age gracefully is to age with gratitude. I embrace, believe and experience this truth every day. Walking life in gratitude is not...

One definition of the phrase aging gracefully means that we look younger than our years. But that’s a sorry and shallow definition, and...

Writing is one thing. Marketing yourself to the world is another. On the one hand I don’t think that the desire for readers is an...

My friends are precious to me, some known for 40 and 50 years. They’re the source of birthday cards and calls, emails and birthday...

This is a pep-talk sort of rant that is as much for me as it is for anyone. Be forewarned: I speak of some unsavory aspects of writing...

On the one hand, you have to be a little bit crazy to want to lock yourself into a room several hours each day to create worlds with the...

A few days ago an old friend, Kitty, emailed me that she was cleaning out a file cabinet and had found several of my letters. She scanned...

My writing journey is pretty inspirational, at least to me. For the past four years, I have been doing what musicians call...

So why write a book at all? I’ve asked myself this question in the past year as I’ve slogged through the slow revision and polish process...

Even though one day is pretty much the same as another, and an arbitrary line between December 31st and January 1st doesn’t really mean...

I am hunkered down with tea and  a laptop, moving forward on a manuscript that has had its hands around my throat for the past year and...

Recently I was given a list of Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling. It’s a great list for anyone who writes fiction. Number #14 on the list...

For a while I still read at night. Schooled on the principle that one’s writing is a direct reflection of the quality of one’s reading, I...

I kept the teapot and the sugar and creamer, though I lost the lid to the pot during a move. I displayed them on a shelf. The rest of the...

By the time you are working in the long-form format of the novel or the memoir, craft becomes the big thing. Story. Craft is what makes...

And the problem didn’t start when I got porned on Facebook. A sexually violent picture appeared on my timeline. I was able to report it...

Our group goes to the Minnenhauf. It means “house of love.” We meet  Sister Felicitous, who tells us about the women from whose...

Thus far, my sixties have been the most exciting and fun part of my life. I never believed I would say that a few years ago. Sixty is,...

Writers are a quirky lot. We spend a lot of time in our introverted creative bubbles, so when we do venture out, it’s kind of a party....