12/12/12 – A Quiet Day
Inspired by Xanthe Berkeley's challenge on Shuttersisters to create a time capsule of 12/12/12, I decided to capture this ordinary day so that sometime in the future, maybe 20 years from [...]
Inspired by Xanthe Berkeley's challenge on Shuttersisters to create a time capsule of 12/12/12, I decided to capture this ordinary day so that sometime in the future, maybe 20 years from [...]
As announced last Monday, I am happy to welcome Shirley Hershey Showalter as a guest blogger today. We met in the online world last year; I was initially intrigued by her [...]
My grandmother and me at my wedding I'm thrilled to be guest blogging on Shirley Showalter's blog today. Topic: Writing About Family. It's the hairiest issue in writing memoir, at least [...]
Today I'm happy to host Kelly Hashway. Kelly is a prolific writer of children's, middle grade, and young adult books, and she's also the mom to a beautiful little girl. I've [...]
Adding to my Moms Who Write series, today I welcome Liz Sheffield as my guest blogger. Liz and I met during last year's Blogathon and have supported each other's blogging [...]
Further in my Moms Who Write series, I am happy to welcome Tia Bach today, whom I consider one of my good blogging friends. We met during last year's Blogathon [...]
Sandy's back porch, all set up for writing. As part of my current series on Moms Who Write, I am happy to welcome my long-time student Sandy Suminski as my [...]
Candid camera: Stephanie in bed, trying to write. As part of my current series on Moms Who Write, I am happy to welcome my longtime student Stephanie Springsteen. Her [...]
Gillian's writing nook (I must say, I am a little jealous...) I am developing a little series here on how mothers fit writing into their lives, and today I am [...]
Sun Hee and her daughter in Montreal last summer Today is guest blog exchange day on the Blogathon, and I pleased to welcome Sun Hee Yoon, a fellow memoir writer. [...]
"I'm convinced that there are only so many words per day in the human body: If you do some longish emails and a few tweets, you feel done." Anna Quindlen [...]
Photo courtesy of Sun Hee Yoon - it reflects a serenity hardly found at the conference It's taken me some time to recover from the last week's AWP 2012 Conference [...]
Checking my notes at the writersandcritters conference Today I'm sharing the recording of a short conversation on the merits of writing in first, second or third person that we got [...]
Here's a little chuckle for you on a genre that often leaves little to chuckle about. Last Sunday I went to a memoir event: Moment Magazine was presenting the winners [...]
I've been a bit quiet on my blog here because I've been loud otherwise: I've been using every free minute I have alone to myself to read my book manuscript [...]
Tree at Ragdale - photo courtesy of Barbara Terao Poet and nonfiction writer Marcia Pradzinski has been a member of my Advanced Memoir Workshop at StoryStudio Chicago for a while, [...]
The Christmas Around the World exhibit also wrapped up today. Fittingly, the Great Hall with the big Christmas Tree was decorated with Grinch posters. Today was the last day of [...]
Why do great ideas always strike at the most inopportune moments? Like when I'm brushing my teeth, or taking a bath? Or, like the other evening, while I'm chopping fruits for [...]
Following up on my post “Why a writer’s residency is a good idea,” I am happy to welcome my writer friend Elizabeth Garber of Maine, whom I was fortunate to [...]
Finding focus in our writing is a big challenge, especially when you're writing personal narrative. How do you whittle down a big life into one small story? My tips: Use a [...]
The studios at VCCA are housed in the former barn complex. During my second time there, we had a terrific blizzard. This pictures shows the brilliant day after the storm [...]
On my fourth day back home from the writersandcritters conference in Sterling, VA, I am still exhausted. Writers conferences will do that to you, even a small and intimate one [...]
Greetings from the misty banks of the Potomac River where I am at a writers' conference. More detailed reports are found on Nancy's blog but I do hope to report [...]
I've spent the last few days reviewing student manuscripts, and I have to share what a joy it is to witness literature in the making. Not that I don't try to create [...]
In case you thought the overuse of the word "like" is a new phenomenon, or at least one of the recent decade, you will be as surprised as I was [...]
Welcome to one of my writer and blogger friends, Nancy Julien Kopp. Thank you, Nancy, for sharing your take on participating in an online writing group: Annette asked the right [...]
A travel writing class I took online many years ago became the turning point in my life as writer. Not only did I receive the best writing advice ever, but [...]
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle This quote came through on the Happiness Project's daily email today and it [...]
Today is the 50th anniversary of Ernest Hemingway’s death, and an article by Jeffrey Meyers in the Wall Street Journal on Hemingway’s literary achievement reminded me of that. He died, sadly [...]
About a year ago I was discussing where we write with my memoir class. One student, a flight attendant, said that he often wrote on the plane during his break [...]
Today I’m sharing with you the one piece of advice that was the key to me becoming a writer. Many years ago I took an online travel writing class taught [...]
I often find, in student manuscripts, instances where the writer tells me something, only to go on to show it. And then tells me again what she’s already shown me. [...]
Another way to pursue a literary life is to attend a literary festival. In Chicago, the Printers Row Literary Festival is coming up next weekend (June 4-5), offering lots of book [...]
Today's Blogathon topic is "My 5 Favorite Places to Write." However, I only have one favorite place to write: my couch. In the photo I'm leaning forward, probably because my [...]
Thank you, Michelle Rafter, for featuring my blog on SecondAct, the online magazine for people reinventing themselves after 40. I have to admit I never quite saw myself as engineering [...]
The one insight gleaned from today’s seminars at the Queens MFA alumni conference, courtesy of Alan Michael Parker who was talking about taking risks in writing: Most plots, especially in [...]
My greatest insight today from the Queens MFA alumni conference: William Butler Yeats apparently advised a young poet who had sent him some of her poems to read and study [...]
Since I’m still in the rosy glow of my crush on Helene Hanff’s classic epistolary memoir 84, Charing Cross Road, I will share with you one of her priceless insights [...]
Now that I'm into writing reviews on amazon as part of my quest for a broader literary life, I was happy to read on the Creative Penn that those ratings and [...]
Any writer worth his or her salt keeps a notebook. Most are particular about what kind. I know I am. Mine has to be spiral bond, size 5x7”, with lined [...]
Reading poetry is a wonderful way to infuse your mind with the beauty of words, and for me April as National Poetry Month is a good reason to get back into [...]
Another writing ritual that keeps me going is checking in with my writing buddy Harriet. Every Friday we e-mail each other to report how many submissions we sent out, what [...]
Yesterday, during a trial run for an authors’ roundtable, I was asked about my writing rituals. Did I have any habits that keep me writing? I do. One is my [...]
Walking along the snow covered lakefront, where the blizzard left its plentitude, is very much like writing. On my walk this morning, the path initially was clear, not down to [...]