Last month, I turned forty-two. John took me out to dinner the night before, and the day of my birthday the kids came home in the early afternoon and the four of us, including Olive the dog, swam out to the dock in the middle of the lake. We jumped off the diving boards, and…
Love words. Love sentences with your whole heart. Love novels. Love books. Love the smell of books and bookstores. Read. If you don’t love to read, you’re probably trying to be a writer for the wrong reasons. Read everything. The good stuff teaches you to reach high, and the bad stuff makes you feel a…
A couple days ago I had a my-writing-life-is-a-failure kind of moment. It’s not actually a failure. But as an emotional writer, sometimes numbers get the better of me. There is this one word that makes my head spin. It’s the word many writers dread. It’s the word that feels like an endless blackhole. It’s the…
