Writer’s life
Writing Matters, Regardless. Meditation, Writing, and the Mundus Imaginalis.
A friend I talked to recently hit on the existential pain of the writer’s life when they said they feared their long years of work and sacrifice were all for nothing since they feared (with good reason) the book they’d been working on for years will never be published. To have a manuscript remain unpublished…
Read MoreNo Magic Solution To Criticism: In Conversation with Sr. Rita Woehlcke
As you know, my dear friend Sr. Rita is undergoing chemo for cancer, a disease she calls her “Wisdom Companion.” She has written, and continues to write, about the wisdom she is receiving as she is on this journey. You can read her essays on this blog. Just look in the search engine. The other…
Read MoreThe Wheel Turns To Remind Us
A blessed Lughnasadh/Lammas to all. After a brutal spate of heat (that many are still suffering), I woke to a cool wet morning. The creek has been alarmingly low these past weeks. The deer tiptoe across and barely get their hooves wet. It rained for a couple of hours last night, but hardly enough to…
Read MoreHow To Write Literary Fiction
Recently Dundurn Press, the publisher of my latest novel, “Even So,” asked me to write a blog for their “Advice To Writers” feature and they suggested the subject “How to Write Literary Fiction.” Why? Because they love to ask the hard questions! I encourage you to go to Dundurn’s site, so you can see (and…
Read MoreA Place In the World
Soon, my seventh novel, Even So will be born into the world. It’s almost here, or rather, it is here, insofar as my part of the labor is done, and it’s off in the capable hands of publishing midwives. This is always an anxious time, since the world proves itself crueler and less understanding with every…
Read MoreEven So …. #21
Day ? of the pandemic. A robin builds a next to the bedroom window; a wren builds a nest by my office door, a chickadee builds a nest by the windchimes hanging from the arbor, in spite of everything. A big old watersnake guards its territory by the creek bank and startles me so that…
Read MoreEven So…. #19
It’s been a few days since I last posted, because things got busy, even so. A very old friend, Michael Cheeks, passed away from cancer. I’ve known Michael since I was eighteen. Born in Guyana, Michael ended up, with his beautiful wife, Linda, in Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories. Michael was a big man, well…
Read MoreEven So …. #18
Day ? of the pandemic. I discovered this week that it’s quite easy to lose track of what day it is. I have a calendar and so forth, but even so. The clouds this morning were white and stone-grey mountains, full of threat and wonder both. I sat in the car and just gazed at…
Read MoreEven So …#17
Day ? of the pandemic. I woke this morning to the news that someone we know, who used to live two doors from us has passed away from Covid19. The circle of friends, acquaintances, and loved ones grows tighter, closer, in spite of everything. I came across a quote from Peace Pilgram today: “With inner…
Read MoreEven So… #15
Day ? of the pandemic. My Best Beloved always refills the coffee maker with water after he’s made his own morning brew, a little thing but it reminds me of how very kind he is, even so. I have rediscovered the delight of avocado toast sprinkled with Egyptian dukkah (that fragrant mixture of herbs and…
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