“I sometimes delude myself about why I keep a notebook, imagine that some thrifty virtue derives from preserving everything observed. See enough and write it down, I tell myself, and then some morning when the world seems drained of wonder, some day when I am only going through the motions of doing what I am…
Read more Laundry Room
This business about “If you write, you’re a writer” is off-putting. No one ever says, “If you nurse someone back from a cold, you’re a nurse,” or “If you can spout the law, you’re a lawyer.” I get that the phrase is meant to encourage aspiring writers or maybe even seasoned ones who missed a word count or are…
Read more Write Sock
I finished STAY almost two years ago, and in the middle of writing my next book, I lost the love. Some call it burnout, but I write romance, so lost love is more accurate. It’s not that I couldn’t write; I was still capable. I just didn’t want to. I wasn’t excited to sit down…
Read more Linen
I have this gorgeous journal. The pages are soft and a lovely shade of ivory. The cover is patched together textiles and embroidered seams. There is a pocket in the front to tuck treasures and inspiration. If I could dream up a journal, this one would be the one. I have a beautiful fountain tip…
Read more Pressed
I should have joined the circus. The workday is over. I spent most of it staring at the wall, and then in a last ditched effort at productivity, I put washi tape on an otherwise dull folder. This successful writer—with—loads—of—hashtag—2021—goals accomplishment left me with the idea that things would be better if I’d joined the…
Read more Tide
Eight, I counted. Eight blog posts in 2020. All the time in the world with nowhere safe to go, an endless barrage of topics, and I have never written less. Maybe I was traumatized by the pandemic or the litany of lies we tell ourselves as a nation. Maybe I struggled to get over surviving…
Read more Ostrich Feathers
There’s no sense in lying. I fell in strong like with this picture, and since I have to write a blog post today, I went with something that makes me smile. No. I do not know the adorable tatted man or his puppy dog. I simply needed inspiration, and there they were on iStock. Today…
Read more Wringing
We are only as blind as we want to be. Maya Angelou said that. At least I think she said it, maybe she wrote it. To be honest, I was drawn to the words first, and then I Googled who said them. You can’t always trust the internet to get quotes, or the quoted correctly,…
Read more Spot
I turned ten years old on July 3rd. Well, not really. I started my blog ten years ago. I don’t like numbers. Their restrictions go past high school algebra into the mindset of our culture. Numbers can make us feel falsely badass or tragically small. I guess that alone explains why July 3rd came…
Read more Pack