Failure
Dear Abby and Karen, Today for some reason, I am thinking about failure. The failure of a book to sell well. The failure of a book to be published. The failure to complete a book. The failure to even...
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After plenty
Dear Nancy: As you know from all the beautiful notes and photos and songs and many kind wishes on this Facebook wall, yesterday was my birthday. Birth Day. That day has always been a haunted one for...
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An imaginary island where the words hear only their own voices for awhile
Dear Nancy: Sometime this week while I was staying in the cottage on the farm up Gettysburg way, I dreamed deep and hard. I was in a car with a several students. One new one, a young man who is...
View ArticleGratitude for Karen McElmurray
Dear Karen, Here is what I have to thank you for: Embarking on this journey with me, a journey of over two years in which we have been writing letters back and forth on the writing life, and more....
View ArticleThe Mother Ship of Writing
On Saturday I taught my once-a-month, free-to-all Prompt Writing class. One of the prompts was “What I need for my writing.” I don’t usually give a writing prompt about writing, but when I do it’s...
View ArticleThe Coyote
In the town I live in there is a river. I often walk it in the mornings, and sit on a rock beside a beaver pond. The bank on the other side has a very steep grade leading up a small mountain. Between...
View ArticleWork
I think there are three ways of earning money in this world. One is to rent out your body (labor), another is to rent out the space between your ears (desk jobs mostly), and the third is to have money...
View ArticleThick Skin vs. Self Knowledge
I am often asked about the ethics of memoir. Specifically, is it ethical to write about another person? Can I be sued? Should I use real names? My answers are, respectively: Yes and no, maybe, and...
View ArticleWhy Are You Reading This Blog?
Hello. You again. At the risk of breaking all the rules of blogdom, I have to ask, why are you here? What do you hope to gain? Is there some grain of wisdom you seek that has not shown itself in your...
View ArticleI Quit
I quit. I quit on average about three times a month. Sometimes I stay quit for months. Sometimes I stay quit for only hours. Sometimes I quit a particular project and sometimes I quit the whole gig....
View ArticleWriting Fiction
Writing fiction is always about relationship, and the first relationship that must be established is between the author and the main character. There’s got to be a certain intimacy in order to proceed....
View ArticleWhat are you working on now?
What are you working on now? There is no escaping this question once you are a published author, but the answer is complicated. For me anyway, which is one reason I don’t like to talk about works in...
View ArticleMoney, Spaciousness, Deadlines and Bathtubs
For a long time before I had a writing life, I dreamed of one. I dreamed of living by the ocean in a little cottage, taking long walks, reading, eating good food, relaxing, breathing deeply. Or else I...
View ArticleLather, Rinse, Repeat
Nine times a month I teach classes devoted only to writing from prompts. The prompts can range anywhere from a line of poetry, to a picture, to an object, to writing a story that places an object...
View ArticleLetting the Work Breathe
As soon as the contract for Persimmon Wilson was signed I started work on another novel. I knew I had just a slim window of time before the revision edits for Persy arrived in my inbox, and that once...
View ArticleThe Market
People often ask me how to read the market. What should they do? What’s the next new trend? How did I know to write what I wrote when I wrote it? Look at me, I want to say. Do I look like I know what...
View ArticleA Day Without Devices
On my walk this morning I found a nub of purple chalk a child had used to scribble on the pavement. I picked it up, an opportunity in my hand. What would I write? I thought hard about it, and then...
View ArticleOn Becoming a Writer
Once I’d made my mind up to it, becoming a writer was fairly simple. I committed myself to it. I studied it. I read a lot of books. I attended a lot of readings. I attended as many workshops as I...
View ArticleWeaving a Blue Horse
This weekend I tried to weave an image of a horse on my small lap loom. It had been a long time since I’d tried to shape a horse with yarn across tightly stretched warp, and it wasn’t coming easily. I...
View ArticleLiving in Fear
I have been living in fear. I am afraid of my public life. I am afraid of what it might mean to be known for what I do and recognized. I am afraid of what it might mean to not be known for what I do...
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