“I began to hear, in what kept coming from across the street into the room where I typed, the recurring dreams of youth, inescapable, never to be renounced, naming themselves over and over
Continue Reading
The Scribbling Woman: A Companion to the Writerly Life
What Is Your Platform? (My What?)
I remember the first time that came up in some gathering of writers I was in. Those apparently in the know were adamant about the fact that we had no chance of continuing to be traditionally published if we didn’t have a “platform.” My only acquaintance with that concept – and a passing one at
Continue Reading
The Dream Reader
“Every book, every volume, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.” Carlos Ruiz Zafon, THE SHADOW OF THE WIND
Continue Reading
Ten Things God Never Says To Writers
Even if you don’t call your Higher Power God, you probably have a sense that writing is a spiritual practice. What comes to us whether we’re creating a short story, writing a script, putting together a non-fiction article or working on a novel does so from someplace beyond ourselves. My inner knowing says that’s God.
Continue Reading
What the Sam Hill Is a Scribbling Woman?
“America is now inundated by a damned mob of scribbling women.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, letter to William Ticknor, 1855 I know, right? Honestly, Nathaniel, whining does not become you. When I came across that quote, I had the same reaction my fellow female writers did when I shared it on Facebook: loud and furious, many of
Continue Reading
Shifting Gears
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Albert Einstein? Al-Anon? Bernard Shaw? Harold P. Schwartz? No one is quite sure who said it, but it’s the truth, regardless of the author. The dog barks when the UPS truck pulls up. We yell at the dog. The dog keeps
Continue Reading
Living Without a Why
“This I know. That the only way to live Is like the rose which lives without a why.” Meister Eckhart In my elderhood, one of the things I know that I know that I know – and not just believe – is that there are some things we will never know. So far, we’ve talked
Continue Reading
