I really want to write a rant to all the devastations of the day: the Kavanaugh vote in the Senate, the FBI’s incomplete investigation, the senator from Maine’s weak speech justifying her vote against women, the Senate’s dismissal and nullification of Dr. Ford’s courage. But I have to write for the Debs, it’s that time of the week where the Debs must cull their thoughts for the topic at hand….
Chronicles of an X-American (part 1) The best training is to read and write, no matter what — Grace Paley I’ve always been a poet, and it’s always some tributary of poetry that I return to when I have my teeth, metaphorically, kicked in. I started writing poems, mostly nature poems, when I turned nine. I was fast with my first drafts and slow to revise. Only my fifth-grade…
Bios we wish we had are all about regrets and unfulfilled ambitions. Luckily, I have plenty of both. It turns out, I do regret the things I didn’t do more than the things I did—mostly. Here are a few things I’d love to add to my bio: Lara Lillibridge was brave enough to go with the stepsister she had never met on a burro-trip through the Grand Canyon when…
In 2012 I lost one of my best friends to cancer. Sharon was only forty-two years old, and left behind an amazing husband and two young kids. It happened fast. In May she was healthy, driving up to Los Angeles to take me out for my birthday. By August it had metastasized to her liver and bones, and by the following March, we’d lost her. It changes you, to watch…
1. Fear of Being Considered a Grey’s Anatomy Knockoff: I hear this a lot. My book contains some similarities to the TV show Grey’s Anatomy, apparently. That’s fine, especially because people love that show. For the record, though, I just wanna state: I have never, even once, watched it. I don’t like medical dramas, partly because I’ll fixate on some inaccurate detail and then ruin the show for everyone else…
I really don’t like talking about fear. Oh, little fears, sure. I detest rollercoasters because I’m sure they’re going to break and kill me, I’ve been known to dive under picnic tables to get away from wasps which are clearly dark minions sent forth from the bowels of hell, and my horror of open water has been reinforced for decades by nightmares and augmented by that time my baby sister almost…
Y’all. I didn’t get home until almost 7 last night. I’ve only spent one entire day at home since August 13th, and I am a homebody. I (try to) maintain a full-time job, a healthy marriage, and I’m currently actively working on THREE manuscripts. And that’s not taking into account the dogs, or exercise, or eating real, healthy food on a regular basis. I clearly did not get the memo…
Can you believe the color and transparency of Island Lake (above)? I took that photo last summer in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. It’s one of my happiest of happy places, a place to which I can transport myself when I’m stressed or upset – so needed this week since we’re talking about publishing fears. The other day a few of us Debutante Ball authors were commiserating about our pre-publication jitters…
My top 10 Halloween Season Publishing Nightmares: Simon and Schuster calls. They’re terribly sorry, but they thought this whole time that Amy Poehler wrote SMALL ADMISSIONS. They appreciate my understanding for the mistake and would ask me to please return the advance at my earliest convenience. I am reading in front of a big crowd at a book store and suddenly have a hot flash, flop-sweat debacle to the degree of Albert…
This week, in prep for Halloween, the Debs are writing about their biggest fears about publishing. The quote in the headline comes from Thomas Hardy in his “A Laodicean.” I found it apt for this post. Why? Because I’m a worry-wart. I probably should have added that to my confessions post,. I over-think nearly most every situation, prepping myself for what might come. I recently learned that the term for…
