Very Superstitious
The Fearless One! I don’t think of myself as an overly superstitious person. I walk under ladders, although I do check first to see if there’s a can of yellow paint hovering over me. I don’t mind black cats walking in front of my path, although I admit I do get the feeling sometimes that…
Read MoreOrdinary Time
I’ve been thinking about the quality of time, and what the constantly shifting seasonal cycles mean in my life. I heard the term “Ordinary Time” mentioned by the Rector at my church recently, and it reminded me how much I’ve always liked that phrase. Ordinary time — plain time, time without end, simple time. I…
Read MoreNature's prayer
Just before Thanksgiving last year, NPR interviewed Terry Tempest Williams, author of Finding Beauty in a Broken World. In part of the interview, Ms. Williams talked about prairie dogs. She said: “I watched prairie dogs every day, rise before the sun, stand with their paws pressed together facing the rising sun in total stillness for…
Read MoreTwelve Steps for Writers
Last week I wrote about how both people wishing to stay sober, and people wishing to be writers had more than one thing in common. I also said I’d give some thought as to what the 12-steps for Writers might look like. Here we go – please feel free to keep your sense of humor…
Read MoreDiscipline — for writers and drunks
As a writer, I have learned the benefit of regular habits. Although I realize some writers only scurry to the typewriter (oh, how I date myself!) when the inspiration strikes them, I am in agreements with March Heaton Vorse, who said, “The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants…
Read MoreSpring cleaning for the soul
I’m never quite ready for Lent. It seems to creep up on cat’s paws too quickly and before I’ve fully recuperated from Christmas, there I am at the altar, having someone smear my forehead with ashes and being reminded of my own mortality. “Remember, woman, that thou art dust and until dust shalt thou return.”…
Read MoreWhen There's No Sky Left
On Saturday, I realized I’m going to have to restructure the novel I’m working on, which means a lot of long days for a while. So, I hope you won’t mind if, for this post, I use an essay that was published a while back in THE LITERARY REVIEW (Farleigh Dickinson University), entitled When There’s…
Read MoreIf you love books – a writer's plea
The dodo. Quite extinct, as books may well be, if reader’s don’t buy them. We all know how terrible the economic situation is right now. We’re all suffering. The same is true of the publishing industry, which hasn’t had a good year in quite some time now. Publishing houses are laying off staff, and closing…
Read MoreCivility, please come back
I was in a meeting this morning when the fellow leading the meeting said, “Now we’re in Princeton, so of course there are a lot of Really Important People here today, and no doubt they’ll be getting Really Important Phone Calls, you know, conversations that could not possibly wait an hour until this meeting’s over.…
Read MoreEven a heretic…
Last night I found myself in a committee meeting. I don’t really know why I was there, and possibly the other committee members were wondering the same thing. I’m not good in committees. I keep having opinions. Sitting on an organizing committee is sort of like working in an office, something else I’m not very…
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