Posts by Kate
christmas according to Stella
Last night, after reading to Stella and turning out her light, I was lying next to her in bed, giving her a back rub when she said, very seriously, “Mom, Christmas isn’t about love.” “Sure it is,” I said, looking at her narrow back, wondering where she was going with this train of thought. “It’s…
Read Morerevision and Némirovsky
I’m sure some of you have already read Irène Némirovsky’s Suite Française. For those of you who have not, you must go out and get it. Némirovsky was a Russian Jew who had lived in Paris for twenty years by the time the Nazis invaded France. She was a successful novelist and mother to two…
Read Moreblogging in my head
I’m sorry I’ve been silent for the last week. I’ve wanted to blog and have actually been thinking about blogging, but it’s been impossible for me to get myself to the computer. Partly, this is because I have a new cold (or maybe it’s the same cold with new life), and all I’ve wanted to…
Read Morewho rocks the dialogue?
This week, one of my students wanted to talk more about dialogue because she was having trouble writing realistic, moving dialogue in her nonfiction. It’s a common problem, I think, for beginning writers because their instinct is to write dialogue in a vacuum: he said, she said, he said, etc. I want my students to…
Read Morenora bella
Now D. and Stella and I all have colds. We’re sick and snotty and coughing—my lungs and throat feel raw—and Stella has a wicked fever. When I was awake coughing from 1:30 to 4 this morning, I seriously considered a big shot of NyQuil. (I have a will of steel, so I was able to…
Read Morestruggling with structure
No luck on Thanksgiving not gorging myself. In fact, I ate excessively all weekend. And now I have a horrible cold. (Not that these two things are related. I only wanted to point out that I’ve been uncomfortable—in slightly different ways—for many days now. With Sudafed off limits I’d actually go so far to say…
Read Moregorging
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We’re doing double-duty, as we always do—first to D.’s sister’s house and then to my mom’s house. It’s a lot of food for one day, and each year I plan to eat only a little bit at D.’s sister’s. Why must I gorge myself when I know…
Read Moreviable
I am twenty-four weeks pregnant today, which means that I’m carrying a viable fetus. When we were contemplating a second pregnancy, and shortly after I became pregnant, I thought that these weeks—24 to 28—would be the most difficult for me. A baby born earlier than 23 weeks has virtually no chance of survival, but 24-weekers…
Read Moremothertalk blog tour: the daring book for girls
In May, I participated in MotherTalk’s blog bonanza for Conn and Hal Iggulden’s The Dangerous Book for Boys. Now, I hadn’t actually read the book—I’m not a boy and I don’t have a boy, which of course you all know—but I was inspired by MotherTalk’s prompts: recall your own childhoods and describe some of the…
Read Morewhen I'm not writing
I was tagged by kyra at this mom with this writing meme almost a month ago, and I’ve been avoiding doing it. I am supposed to identify five writing strengths and list them here, but I find it so difficult to identify my strengths as a writer when I haven’t actually been writing. Before Stella…
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