Writer’s Mental Health
Will I Write Again?
Perhaps it was Philip Roth’s announcement that he’s throwing in the pen that got me thinking about retiring from writing, but the thought has been skittering about in the darker corners of my mind over the past few weeks. It could also be a merely my usual pre-publishing state of mind. My Best Beloved assures…
Read MoreYou Had Me At "Torture."
On this snowy morning, rather than spend my time out frolicking with the Rescuepoo in the drifts (which I promise I’ll do in a few minutes, really, Dog… try and be patient!) I feel compelled to enter into the ridiculous fray surrounding what may be the most unlikely literary pairing I’ve heard in a long…
Read MoreThe Spirituality of Imperfection
I’m re-reading a great book right now, called THE SPIRITUALITY OF IMPERFECTION. Sounds tailor-made for me, doesn’t it? I know, I know. This books speaks to me on several levels — as a person staying sober one day at a time, as a writer, and as someone seeking a closer relationship with the Sacred. In…
Read MoreAiming For Oblivion
Today a woman told me she didn’t think she had a drinking problem because she never drank to feel better, or even to get high, the way others did; she drank so she didn’t have to feel anything. She found her emotions intolerable, and she drank aiming for oblivion. She wasn’t an alcoholic, she said,…
Read MoreGreat Way to Start the Morning
Because I am a little neurotic and insecure and oscillate between wanting to be left alone to write and wanting people to remember I exist — in short, you know, a WRITER — I have a Google alert set up. Sometimes it brings me wonderful things, as it did this morning when I was alerted…
Read MoreWhat To Do? What To Do?
I had a phone chat recently with a writer friend of mine. We both have books coming out this spring and are both dealing with the pre-publication jitters. His editor called him to say a blurb for the book had come in and it was a really nice blurb, but the ‘blurbist’ had suggested “a…
Read MoreA Form of Political Protest
We wake up this morning to more dreadful news. Riots and attacks in Libya, Yeman, Egypt. Good people dead. Intolerance and ignorance exploding everywhere. I am prone, as I have said before, to the droops. The world gets me down. Some days more than others, and these days cruelty, selfishness, intolerance, ignorance and self-righteousness abound. …
Read MoreMusic Of The Spheres (cerebrally speaking)
Students often ask me how I manage to get to the page. They want to know if I light candles, do yoga, drink coffee, read poetry . . . I answer yes to pretty much everything, although I do none of those things consistently. (And besides, I’m not sure any such advice is helpful to…
Read MoreAt The Mercy Of Our Perceptions . . .
Well, OUR DAILY BREAD is out in Canada now, and I’m delighted with the Canadian edition. Beautiful new cover, deckle edges, French flaps. I think Harper Collins has done a terrific job, and so far the response from readers has been good. Which means, of course, I have to start thinking about what I’m going…
Read More10 Truths for Emerging Writers (hint: think slow)
I heard from an emerging writer recently who said she’d been crushed, devastated, destroyed by the feedback she’s received on her book, which she recently self-published, and by the lack of sales. She was so convinced it was brilliant. Now she feels as though readers are idiots or else she’s utterly deluded. Either way, she’s…
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