Writing a novel is, at heart, all about making shit up. That phrase–making shit up–became the constant refrain of my Mapping the Novel workshop at the Sitka Center last week. (It was the BEST workshop ever, mostly because of my wonderful students, but also because of the fabulous staff and the spectacular location. I could go […]
Feel the fear and do it anyway is one of the great all-time phrases ever. And I certainly can’t take credit for the words. It was the title of a book that came out years ago, by Susan Jeffers, and I clutched that book to me like a life raft at the time. I was […]
Years ago, I had the pleasure of hearing Madeleine L’Engle, author of one of the best books ever, A Wrinkle in Time, speak. I brought my sister, a designer along. L’Engle was inspiring, gracious, and fascinating and when her talk was over, my sister turned to me and said, “She makes me wish I was […]
So, today is Friday and usually often on Friday I do a round-up post called Five on Friday in which I tell what’s going on in my life. As I started to write that post today, I realized that most of it would be taken up with information about the workshop I’m going to teach […]
I am at this moment a fool for detoxing. I’m doing a three-month heavy metal detox (under doctor’s supervision—don’t try this at home) and, at the same time (because why not), a detox designed to clean out my gut and make it healthier. I’ll spare you the gory details of it all, other than to […]
Good morning. It has been another week of lovely weather, though the record-breaking high eighties we had at the start of it were a bit too much for me. Here’s what’s been going on: The best thing that happened: Making a lion cake to celebrate my three-year-old granddaughter’s birthday. Her four-year-old cousin came to help, […]
(My inspiration for this post comes from a list penned by Anne Wayman.) What’s on your desk? My computer, a small Dell laptop A cat (just about always) A yellow legal pad with notes on it Two books about writing The little journal in which I keep my to-do lists and make […]
I’ve been collecting goodies for you, a lot of which came in the last couple of days. Also, please note my non-link related question at the end. Here goes: Writing Analyze your novel as if it were a dream. I could not live without the TK. On beating not-writing. How to organize your day. It […]
Are you an adulterer when it comes to creativity? I am. Here’s a brief list of some of the creative arenas I sometimes dabble in (dabble being the key word): knitting, stitching, painting, art journaling, collage, weaving, mosaic. Okay, nix on the mosaic. Somewhere in this house I have a bunch of ceramic shards but […]
Happy leap day! Are you leaping about, as I’ve seen so many people doing on Instagram? (We humans are nothing if not predictable.) Or perhaps you are still recovering from the looooong Academy Awards show last night? I’m actually doing neither. Instead I’m sitting by the TV set, which is tuned to Doc McStuffins, with […]
