Books and writing are the core of my life. I edit books, write books, and teach writing. I love this work, and will be happy to provide any editorial or writing service you need.
This is my chance to indulge in some of my favorite topics: books I’m reading; writing advice, my own and that of accomplished writers; what I learn from my students in my classes; and, oh yes, my soapbox, where I rant—mildly—about anything related to writing and publishing that makes me say “What?”
I also get to showcase amazing photographs taken by some of my favorite people. (In my next life, I want to be a photographer.)
Has fate ever brought a life-changing person into your life? A person you never expected, who over the course of several decades filled the roles of employer and mentor and friend? Fate did that for me. Her name was Carolyn Nichols. In the early ‘80s, diploma from my expensive Minnesota college in hand, I headed for New York City in search of fame and fortune. Well, no, not really. An … [Read more...]
Back in the day, when I lived in New York in the 1980s, a new singer songwriter was getting a lot of attention—Suzanne Vega. I bought her first album as a cassette tape, and then had to buy it again because I wore out the tape. Eventually I bought the CD, which I found recently when I was reorganizing my music collection. I immediately played it, and aside from being transported back to that other … [Read more...]
A friend mentioned to me recently that the average person works only three productive hours a day. That figure astounded me, so I went looking for verification. I found some information here: http://www.inc.com/melanie-curtin/in-an-8-hour-day-the-average-worker-is-productive-for-this-many-hours.html Anyone who doesn’t work a regular office job will immediately note that this study looks at … [Read more...]
Now that summer is over—well, officially over tomorrow with the autumnal equinox—I am returning to this blog. I did not expect my summer to be so busy that I wouldn’t have time to write, and looking back, I can’t see that I was, in fact, that busy. But there were a family wedding and a family reunion and a family medical emergency (that ended well, thank goodness). A summer writing class that I … [Read more...]
In his poem “To a Louse,” Robert Burns describes watching a louse crawl on a lady’s bonnet while in church. There is some humor in the image of the woman being unaware that she’s got vermin roaming around on her hat, and Burns ends the poem with (translated from Burns’s Scots): “And would some Power give us the gift/To see ourselves as others see us!” I thought of this the other day, when my … [Read more...]
