I refer to New Yorker subscription envy. Not New Yorker resident envy. Sure, it would be fun to live in NYC—maybe for a month or a semester. (It’s been decades, but maybe once again I’ll find myself with a syllabus.) I see myself hitting up the museums I’ve not gotten around to. The Cloisters, for […]
Sit With Us App
The Sit With Us app was announced yesterday, creating a subtle but ground-breaking way for lonely teens to connect in lunch rooms without calling attention to themselves. 16-year-old Natalie Hampton designed the Sit With Us smartphone application in response to the feelings that she experienced when she spent her entire 7th grade year eating lunch […]
It’s All About the Food and Tradition
One of our sons is visiting this week with his wife, and a friend from his school days has driven up the coast to join us for a few days. If there were a theme to this week it would be “Food and Tradition” because when mothers entertain sons, isn’t that a major factor? The […]
Your Truth Can Inspire Others
Your truth can inspire! Linda Joy Myers, Author and Founder of the National Assn of Memoir Writers, shared a post today about vulnerability and truth in memoir. I don’t want to quote her suggestions in their entirety but you can read the entire post here. There was one point that stood out for me. When […]
Writer Conference Recharge
When the going gets tough, it’s tempting to close and laptop and back away. Writing is a struggle for all of us, and yet, if we back away, we’re just pushing The End further down the line. This morning I awakened at 4:45 in a terrifying nightmare sweat. It was the first time my memoir […]
Dawn on the 4th of July
The 4th of July dawns on Vashon Island with the sunrise race of the hydros (hydroplane boats, see wiki). 52 years running— a race to circumnavigate the island at sunrise. People love it. Or Hate it. It’s a noisy tradition that I haven’t been here long enough to love, and certainly how could I “hate” […]
Writing in the Garden
After two weeks of getting the gardens back in shape, I finally climbed down from the ladder and removed my deerskin gloves. I stood back to admire the roses I had just pruned, gathered up my tools and peeled off the extra layer of denim that does a superb job of protecting one from thorns […]
The Creative Process
I love mornings. I wake up early and press the start button on the coffee, then slide back into bed to see who has visited me overnight and I respond right then because I’m all about “in the moment”. I go to pour some coffee, slide back into bed yet again and open Scrivener. It […]
The Writer’s Voice
While I was being chased by pugilistic geese and frightened by hoof-pounding Percherons back on our farm in 1955, I was almost totally unaware of the world that existed at the end of the road beyond our mailbox. Sure, there were those Sunday afternoon drives to my grandmother’s cottage for our weekly shampoo in the […]
The Setting in Your Manuscript
When I was in fifth grade I read a book with a vivid salt-sprayed setting on the coast of Maine, a mysterious place a few hours drive from where we lived in inland Massachusetts. The author’s words described it in great detail and I entered her world vicariously. The marsh grass swept the tips of […]