The latest episode of the Writing and Publishing Podcast comes to you from curbside at my son’s school on a Friday, with one minute to go until the bell rings. Why, you ask, am I recording a podcast at my kid’s school? Because the biggest challenge for many writers I know is how to balance…Continue reading Writing tips for busy moms: how to balance writing and family
Category: Personal
Decluttering for Creatives: A Break-Up Letter to My Stuff
Decluttering can be particularly difficult for creative people, especially writers. Because we mine our own pasts for stories, we tend to hang on to mementos that feel significant. We are collectors of observations, but also of objects. We often are prisoner to the notion that the things around us will spark ideas. And while sometimes…Continue reading Decluttering for Creatives: A Break-Up Letter to My Stuff
If I Were 22: A Few Things I’d Tell Myself If I Could Go Back in Time
If I Were 22: A Few Things I’d Tell Myself, If I Could Go Back in Time If I were 22, I’d tell myself that all of those journals I painstakingly kept, scribbling away with colored pens while Enya’s voice spilled out of the boom box, would just end up gathering dust. I’d advise myself…Continue reading If I Were 22: A Few Things I’d Tell Myself If I Could Go Back in Time
CLMP Firecracker Awards
The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses has announced the shortlist for the 2014 Firecracker Awards, which celebrates small press and independently published books. Here are the finalists in fiction and creative nonfiction: CREATIVE NONFICTION The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison (Graywolf Press) Loitering by Charles D’Ambrosio (Tin House Books) The Other Side by Lacy…Continue reading CLMP Firecracker Awards
The Muse: Gray Cat on Gray Chair
Wherein Phoebe commits an admirable act of camouflage, while lounging. Truth be told, she is no muse. When she hears the laptop come on, or hears me settle into my desk chair, she quits whatever she is doing (which is to say she quits sitting around looking impervious) and stages an intervention. She likes to…Continue reading The Muse: Gray Cat on Gray Chair