I did not feel like writing yesterday, nor today. I thought of all sorts of excuses not to sit down at my desk. There was some laundry to be done–maybe a sweater or two…and two pairs of jeans. There was that bill that came in the mail on Saturday; I really should be paying it–oh, […]
If You Want to Write
Last Thursday evening, at my Rochester Art Center reading, a woman asked, “When did you start calling yourself an author?” It’s a good question, one that, I’m sure, every artist asks him- or herself. Does the label come with the simple act of writing? Do you accept the label when you’ve become published…or won an […]
Planting Questions in Story
Working out personal questions of faith within a novel might not be the best thing; however, it works for me. [Two novels I’ve discussed within these pages, of course, that attempt to do the same thing are Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow and The Children of God, both of the science fiction genre, which I […]
Eradicating the Voices in Your Head
As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I’m smitten with the fact that my daughter, at her current age anyway, is oblivious of what’s cool or what’s hip. Those words have not wheedled their way into her vocabulary (or her wardrobe). In fact, she wore her play bubble-gum-pink tutu out the other day (oh, with […]
The Underneath
Ten years ago this summer, I took my first-ever writing class from Kathi Appelt at Rice University. It was early on in my husband’s year-long surgery fellowship, and we’d just arrived in Houston. The heat was unbearable, the people were outrageously polite (“Hello, ma’am”s everywhere!), and Kathi was fascinatingly interesting, as were all the attendees–some […]