Before Winter Became Heavy
Before winter became heavy, it came softly. Before we had 3+ feet of snow on the ground, there were just tracks of snow swinging through the woods. I really [...]
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Feb, 2014
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Feb, 2014
Reflections on Three Years of Blogging
Library at Alcatraz I started this blog more than three years ago, and since I reflected on two years of blogging last year, it's high time to share my insights from three [...]
18
Feb, 2014
Word of the Year
I'm rather late sharing my word for the year 2014. Why so late? Back in November I already knew that "joy" would be the word for the coming year, [...]
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Feb, 2014
Dump those Qualifiers and Modifiers
One insight from Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones has already affected how I write. Here it is: "In the early seventies there was a study done on women and language [...]
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Feb, 2014
Leaving Russia
With the Winter Olympics currently happening in Sochi, Russia, it fits that my review of Maxim Shrayer's memoir Leaving Russia just appeared in the Jewish Book World. Thanks to this book, I feel [...]
13
Feb, 2014
Winter White Lake
On Monday I treated myself to a walk on the lakefront. "Treated," because going for a walk is a major operation these days, involving long underwear, serious snow boots [...]
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Feb, 2014
Writing Down the Bones
Following up on yesterday's post, The Bookshelves of Others, the book I spotted in the bookcase in my bedroom at VCCA was Natalie Goldberg's classic Writing Down the Bones. I entertained [...]
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Feb, 2014
The Bookshelves of Others
The bookshelves of other people are fascinating. What do they tell you? When I'm invited to other people's homes, I appreciate when one of the rooms I get to be in [...]
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Feb, 2014
Serenity at the VCCA
Oh, the serenity of a residency at the VCCA! I've returned to my everyday life in Chicago, and already VCCA's calm and focused atmosphere seems elusive. So I thought I'd [...]
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Jan, 2014
Retyping and Plotting
Right now, this is the wall by my desk in my studio at the VCCA. I am still cutting paper into bits and pieces to work with text (see also my [...]
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Jan, 2014
Walking the Woods at VCCA
I can hardly believe my good fortune to have been granted another residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), and so, when I arrived and temperatures were [...]
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Jan, 2014
Cut and Tape a Text
I love the cut and paste feature of Word, but every now and then, I resort to scissors and tape to arrange a text. Whenever I struggle with structure, I [...]
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Jan, 2014
The Sounds of Winter
Chicago winter - late afternoon yesterday outside my building We've emerged from subzero temperatures here in Chicago, but as winter has gripped the outside with ample snow, treacherous streets and salty [...]
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Jan, 2014
Looking Back: My Most Meaningful Read of 2013
My most meaningful read of 2013 was, without a doubt, Julia Cameron's The Right to Write. It transformed my understanding of the creative process; it has me writing Morning Pages [...]
30
Dec, 2013
Looking Back & Ahead: A Writer’s Workbook 2014
Download my free 14-page workbook to review and plan your writing life. For the writers among my readers, I have a little gift: my Writer's Workbook 2014 (download it by clicking on [...]
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Dec, 2013
My Quandary with Christmas Music
First of all: Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it! Secondly, my essay about my very own quandary with Christmas music, "Can a Jew Love Christmas Music?" appeared today in Tablet [...]
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Dec, 2013
Looking Back: Trips 2013
New York - January Beacon Theatre on Broadway - the announcement of the Groenemeyer Concert caught my eye and led to a wonderful concert experience later in Chicago. {related blog [...]
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Dec, 2013
Cracking a Code: When You Finally Learn to Understand American Knitting and Crocheting Patterns
I did it! I taught myself how to read an American knitting pattern! It feels like I learned how to read, and it reminded me how powerfully enabling it is [...]
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Dec, 2013
12/12/13 – A Busy Day
My weekdays begin with coffee and Morning Pages; in the background are the iced-over windows of winter. I decided to make another time capsule of December 12, based on last [...]
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Dec, 2013
Learning to Make Do – When Your Oven Breaks on Thanksgiving Or the Water Main Breaks
We had a Thanksgiving without a turkey, and not by design. As I turned on the oven to bake the pies my daughter and I had so carefully put together, [...]
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Nov, 2013
Happy Chanukah! Happy Thanksgiving!
Walking through the preschool building at my son's school always lifts my spirits. Invariably I will come across funny and cute creations like these Menurkeys (= Menorah Turkey), created, in [...]
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Nov, 2013
Osage Oranges
Osage oranges are one autumn's delights for me. I never knew about them until my first residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts a few autumns ago. There, [...]
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Nov, 2013
Discovering David Plowden
I am in love. With David Plowden and his stunning black and white photographs of the American Plains and Prairie. It's been one of those serendipitous encounters: The big photograph [...]
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Nov, 2013
Art: Boring Today, Interesting Tomorrow?
Pierce Hall, in its current state of half demolition For my Artist's Dates these past two weeks, I attended the two-evening Bookmakers program offered jointly by the Smart Museum and the [...]
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Nov, 2013
Exploring an Abandoned Path
My son and I had the most thrilling adventure on Sunday: After shopping at Bass Pro Shop for his upcoming science fair project, we stopped by a park down the [...]
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Oct, 2013
A Japanese Garden in Autumn
Last week I treated myself to what Julia Cameron calls an Artist's Date, time spent by yourself in an interesting location to replenish the soul and gather images for the creative [...]
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Oct, 2013
Open House Chicago: Elks Memorial
Open House Chicago is one of those events that delights me to no end because I get to explore and learn and discover beauty I never knew was there. Hosted [...]
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Oct, 2013
When Is a Piece of Writing Done?
This very good question came up in my Advanced Memoir class recently, and my answer is twofold: A piece of writing is done when you feel you have been able [...]
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Oct, 2013
Writing about Real People
Writing about real people, especially family, is probably the number 1 issue writers of personal stories worry about. But it is not just an issue for nonfiction writers... In my [...]
1
Oct, 2013
The Gift of Morning Pages
Writing Morning Pages has become an important daily ritual for me ever since I read Julia Cameron's book The Right to Write. That book was so transformative for me in [...]
24
Sep, 2013
A Perfect September Day in the Indiana Countryside
Oh how I feel like myself again this morning, readying photos for this post! Feels good. Finally, I am blogging again. And blogging, despite its airy quality, is amazingly [...]
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Sep, 2013
My Ode to Kol Nidre
Chicago Loop Synagogue Window Detail ...was published yesterday in Tablet Magazine: Kol Nidre Showed Me... Meanwhile I am looking forward Yom Kippur and am basking, just a little bit, in [...]
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Sep, 2013
My 9/11 Tribute
Thanks to doing my Morning Pages, as soon as I wrote out the date this morning, it hit me what day it was: 9/11, and thanks to my ritual of [...]
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Aug, 2013
When in Boston, Make Way for Ducklings
The Make Way for Ducklings sculpture in the Public Garden in Boston, created by Nancy Schön Oh, the power of fiction! Especially children's fiction! It had my kids and me retracing [...]
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Jul, 2013
How I Found a Most Meaningful Book
Sometimes it is interesting to retrace where something began, when a meaningful connection was made. My interview with Susannah Conway appeared in the Washington Independent Review of Books last week, and [...]
25
Jul, 2013
A Trip to Bishop Hill (2)
Spinning wheel at the Steeple Building, Bishop Hill, Illinois On our visit to Bishop Hill, my friend Barbara and I spent a considerable amount of time in the Steeple Building, [...]
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Jul, 2013
A Trip to Bishop Hill (1)
Bishop Hill Post Office These days I am itching for some serenity, probably because my family's summer schedule isn't really a schedule. As soon as I'm into a new routine, [...]
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Jul, 2013
Rebecca McClanahan on Writing about Family
Did you have any feeling of debt to anybody? Did you feel any constraints about what you couldWith her memoir The Tribal Knot - A Memoir of Family, Community [...]
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Jul, 2013
On Attending Memorial Services
Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, where one of the memorial services was held. Within the last two weeks, I attended the memorial services for two men in their late [...]
5
Jul, 2013
My Grandparents’ House
The latest photo of my grandparents' former house, taken by me on my last visit in June 2009. My essay 'Thrown Out' of the Family Home was published in [...]
1
Jul, 2013
Report from a Literary Hybrid/Book Arts Workshop
Ellen Sheffield's Book Arts Studio at Kenyon College One of my housemates at the Kenyon Writer's Workshop was Mimi Chiang, and not only did we hit it off right away, [...]
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Jun, 2013
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Jun, 2013
Early Morning at the Kenyon College Cemetery
A Civil War grave One morning at Kenyon last week I got up early and left the house before sunrise to get in my photography fix amongst all that writing. [...]
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Jun, 2013
Art that Went Straight to My Heart: Ori Gersht at the Gund Gallery
Ori Gersht Exhibit at the Gund Gallery - It can't be a coincidence, can it,that the panels featuring trees are hung next to the grand window framing the trees of [...]
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Jun, 2013
A Memoir Doesn’t Have to Be a Book
This is my life at Kenyon College right now - sunlight filtering throug the trees along the Middle Path, where we writers tread to meet for our various workshops. I [...]
14
Jun, 2013
Create: Chainmaille Bracelets
The other day I picked up my son from his summer internship at Blue Buddha, one of the largest distributors of chainmaille supplies, which happens to be here in Chicago. [...]
13
Jun, 2013
Two Friends Go to Starved Rock
LaSalle Canyon Wall, photo taken by my friend Barbara Schlund Starved Rock is one of my favorite places to hike, and when my friend Barbara was visiting, we stopped by [...]
12
Jun, 2013
How a Master Commenter Does It
Today is guest blogger day at the Blogathon, and I am happy to be hosting William Kendall. Regular readers will recognize him as this blog's most steadfast commenter. His dedication to [...]
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May, 2013
A Salute to Joyce Brothers
When I saw the news on my Chicago Tribune homepage last night that Joyce Brothers had died, my heart sank. I never met her, never had an exchange with her, [...]
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May, 2013
A Little Album of Love
with my parents at age one As part of my "Create" motto for this year, I've been reading Julia Cameron's Walking in this World: The Practical Art of Creatively. [...]