I’ve just read a wonderful essay by Tom Spanbauer titled “Dangerous Writing” in Poets & Writers. It’s a fitting piece to contemplate as I sit here on this early January morning, the kids packed off to school after a long break, the Christmas tree looking sad in the corner in its nest of fallen needles. […]
Random Musings
Community
In polls on well-being (aka happiness) conducted by the Gallup Corporation, “Community” is considered one of the five essential elements to a thriving well-being. (I read a lot of books on the topic when I was researching my novel, “Happy, Indiana.”) Community is quite simply the way we’re all taking care of each other. Specifically, […]
The Most Frequent Piece of Writing Advice I Received Last Year–and Why I’m Ignoring It
In 2013, I took chances with my writing, threw my hat into the air a la Mary Tyler Moore and yelled into the wind with an unusual (for me) joie de vivre, “Markets be damned! I’ll write whatever I want! I’ll write whatever makes me happy!” The result? Good things, dear reader, good things, but […]
Carve that Tofurkey! A Writer Approaches the Grown-up Table
November has been kind to me, even after I went around publicly bad-mouthing it (I’ve pledged myself eternally to October), and given the season, I feel the need to say thank-you, to the editors, fellow writers, family and friends who indulge me in this creative endeavor. This month, I had fiction published in The Rumpus, which […]
Balto, he’s not.
It happens at least a couple times a week while I’m out walking my new dog. Someone asks where I got him, I reply “The Humane Society,” and they say, “Oh, so he’s a rescue dog.”This puzzles me, as that phrase makes me picture heroic dogs from history, a parade of Baltos carrying diphtheria medicine […]
A Ghostly Story Comes Back to Haunt Me
Do you remember when you learned to read? I remember being read to, and then sometime after that, I remember reading on my own. What happened in the middle is a little fuzzy. I remember, as a grade schooler, wanting to create stories that spoke to the lunacy of modern life, that illuminated what we’ve come to call the human condition (not really; I […]
Want a Pretty Postcard?
Loyal Blog Readers,Are you behind on your correspondence? Is your Grandma still expecting a thank-you for that Christmas sweater she knitted? Are you dreading the necessity of penning a love note to that special someone for Valentine’s Day? Do you long for the days when you got REAL mail? Let me help! I have a set […]
RIP Shaman Drum!
I used to live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a glorious place for writers and readers alike with a bookstore, or two or three, on every block. I especially enjoyed attending readings at Shaman Drum because they regularly featured up-and-coming authors in an intimate setting. I first heard Bonnie Jo Campbell there, and she’s now nominated for […]