My Blog
By Heart
If you don't count song lyrics, I have a short list of things I've learned by heart: the 23rd Psalm, a brief poem from my childhood, the Preamble to the Constitution, and Antony's soliloquy from Julius Caesar. Oh, and the Pledge of Allegiance. Because 'Merica....
Writing Invisibly
**This post originally appeared as a guest post on The Eternal Scribbler.** Anyone who has ever wanted “to be a writer” knows that putting coherent thoughts on a page can be a challenge. So many elements vie for a writer’s attention: setting, plot, word choice,...
Bookstores Have I Loved
Years ago, I stumbled across Helene Hanff's 84, Charing Cross Road, a record of the correspondence between Helene, a snarky Manhattan writer, and Frank Doel, acquirer of rare editions at an antiquarian bookstore named Marks & Co., in England. I fell instantly in...
Mother’s Day Off
At 24, I wrote my mother's obituary. It wasn't my first publication but it was certainly the most memorable. For a long time, her absence was the thing you needed to know first about me, if you were interested in knowing me at all. It drew jagged unreasonable...
Casting Shadows
Recently, I ran across a video of children discovering their shadows for the first time. Their reactions range from fascination to uncertainty to outright fear. Imagine! Here you are minding your business on a bright, sunny day and suddenly a dark figure appears...
The View From Down Here
Back in another life, I flew without wings. All my free time was on the back of a horse, aiming toward ditches, brush piles, or neatly stacked poles, and cantering forward until hooves parted with earth and we sailed upward, buoyant for brief glorious moments. Most...