John and I on a short vacation to the Smokey Mountains in July 2012. Love is one of the hardest subjects. How do you approach love without composing corny clichés? What can you write to make your story real? Sometimes pieces and parts of your relationship(s) sneak into your writing. When J.R.R. Tolkien wrote the… Continue reading Our Time: How We Celebrate Love
Category: Life
Remembering Sandy Hook Elementary
The story is everywhere. You flip from one channel to the other, and you see the broadcast reporters in the same place: Newtown, Conn. The questions are the same. Why would someone shoot twenty children and six school staff? How could this happen? As artists, we seek to discover a character's motive for an action… Continue reading Remembering Sandy Hook Elementary
Let’s Go to the Movies
Orphan Annie thought going to the movies was beyond her wildest dreams. During the Great Depression, the time in which Annie takes place, movies offered escapism. I can count on one finger how many times I've attended the movie theatre this year due to the economy. But, I have not missed a movie education. In… Continue reading Let’s Go to the Movies
What to do When Nervous Strikes
Courtesy of http://cartoonstock.com Faces transform into other appearances and shapes. They change from circles to ovals with a rectangular jaw. One after the other—I feel like I watch a parade of constant change goes by. I did watch a parade go by Saturday. By that afternoon, my gut turned green from changes in my schedule… Continue reading What to do When Nervous Strikes
Six Sentence Sunday
Today, I share a contemporary piece. I have shared six sentence scenes from short stories related to my book, Sons of the Edisto. The Good Year is a fresh story in the sense I have not done anything with it yet. I have not shared it with anyone. I've only edited it a few times.… Continue reading Six Sentence Sunday
4 Ways Becoming a Parent Changes a Writer
Everything changes. Seasons, relationships and the way we, as writers, craft words. I had no idea the changes coming when I worked as a journalist in 2009. I know two consistencies: change always occurs and I have always been a writer. Have you examined the ways in which you've changed as a writer or author?… Continue reading 4 Ways Becoming a Parent Changes a Writer
I Will Remember
I will remember beyond the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh month. I will remember. Great Uncle Durgin's plane was shot down by the Luftwaffe. His body, never found. His 19 years will not waste away in the Mediterranean Sea. One day—when the time is right—my second child will be named for… Continue reading I Will Remember
No More Reservations: Goodbye Bourdain
Courtesy of http://blogs.houstonpress.com Everything must come to an end. Sadly, Anthony Bourdain's show, No Reservations, is one of them. Tonight at 8 p.m., the Travel Channel will show the series finale in Brooklyn. Due to my schedule, I never watch Bourdain's show when it comes on. I watch reruns later in the week or on… Continue reading No More Reservations: Goodbye Bourdain
How Does Career Choice Affect Writers?
I am reading Carl Hiaasen's Nature Girl. I never doubt Hiaasen's authenticity when it comes to creating over-the-top characters. In journalism, over-the-top is sometimes the norm. What led Hiaasen to become an author? Since falling for his writing style—with which I share certain satirical values in my contemporary stories—I had decided to research the author. I… Continue reading How Does Career Choice Affect Writers?
What are 5 Reasons why I never made it in Girl World?
Courtesy of http://hiox.org/4241-tomboy--meaning.php. A friend said she pictured me as the future mother of four girls. "I don't know about that," I replied. I knew I did not cut it when it came to the girl world. It was plagued with too many rules that I, as a writer, could not navigate. During college, I… Continue reading What are 5 Reasons why I never made it in Girl World?
Corrie's Season 