Posts Tagged ‘writing’
happy new year!
I hope you all had a lovely holiday. We spent the week after Christmas up at my mom’s cabin in Northern Minnesota, and it was just the change of scene I needed. Stella and D cleared an ice rink on the lake, and Stella skated back and forth, undaunted by the number of times she…
Read MorenonfictioNOW
It will be too challenging for me to try to sum up the conference—there were too many thoughts stuttering through my mind during those few days in Iowa. But I’ll list a few highlights: * Meeting so many interesting and talented writers, many of whom I’ve admired for a long time, among them Dinty Moore,…
Read Moredone!
I have been in a tizzy these last days, thinking about and managing logistics for the upcoming Mother Words reading (Oct. 7 at the Loft—don’t forget!) and I’ve also been writing writing writing away, trying to finish the memoir. Well. I just typed the last sentence with tears in my eyes, and then I turned…
Read Moreblogging is writing
I mentioned in my last post that I spent Saturday at the MN Blogger Conference, and I need to do a recap of the day here because it was such an amazing event. The space—CoCo MSP—was lovely and intimate (which was perfect for the conference, though I know many people who wanted to be there…
Read Morestructure, structure, structure
Okay, so I’ve been avoiding posting about the memoir and the deadline because, well, the deadline passed and the memoir still isn’t finished. There were some distractions in August, some of them lovely (my 20th high school reunion, which brought a few of my closest friends into town) and some of them not as enjoyable…
Read Moreback to school
Both girls are back in school this week. Stella woke up at 6 a.m. yesterday, ready to dash out the door and wait for the bus. “I’ve tried to go back to sleep,” she whispered, “but I can’t.” “That’s okay,” I said. “You can get ready.” I’ve never seen her brush her hair and teeth…
Read Morea proposal, a platform, and what to do if you don’t have them
The thing I love most about blogging is connecting with other readers and writers (and mothers and friends). I recently “met” Lisa Groen Braner, who wrote The Mother’s Book of Well-Being and has a lovely essay in the latest issue of Brevity. Lisa is also a writing coach who helps nonfiction authors polish their book…
Read Moredeadline, oh beautiful deadline
It’s been a whirlwind around here. D has been rebuilding our garage with his dad and brother, transforming it from a run-down shed (what a neighbor boy accurately called it once) into a real garage with electricity and a garage door and a ceiling actually high enough for a garage door opener. They have been…
Read Morewhen the ending isn’t the ending
The whole time I’ve been rewriting Ready for Air, I assumed it would end the same way my first draft ended. I mean, there is a whole narrative thread that leads to—no, demands—this particular ending to my story. There was a problem, though. I’ve had several readers—one of them an editor who wanted the book…
Read Moreautomatic
Years ago, when I was just starting to write seriously—probably the first year of my MFA program—I remember saying to a friend that writing helped me slow down. “How so?” she asked. “Well, instead of inhaling a bowl of strawberries, I have to stop and think about how I would describe the taste and the…
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