I stand at the podium, sweaty hands clinging to my notes. My right knee shakes a little. I shift my weight and it stops. My mouth feels dry and my heart is pounding. I take a deep breath, look down at my notes, and then look up again at the…
“Let us go forth, the tellers of tales, and seize whatever prey the heart longs for, and have no fear. Everything exists, everything is true, and the earth is only a little dust under our feet.” – W.B. Yeats Have no fear, Yeats said. What would you do if you…
It’s summer – which means kids home from school, trips up to Wisconsin, last minute playdates, visits to the local public pool, and not much time to write. Not to mention the fact that I’m starting to maybe think about dipping my toes back into the book writing pool. Maybe.…
You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. — Mary Oliver, from “Wild Geese” In March, our family…
“How to write: Butt in chair. Start each day anywhere. Let yourself do it badly. Just take one passage at a time. Get butt back in chair.” — Anne Lamott My first job out of law school was at a large law firm in Chicago. I had a small-ish office…
“I look out the window sometimes to seek the color of the shadows and the different greens in the trees, but when I get ready to paint I just close my eyes and imagine a scene.” — Grandma Moses Stephen King once said, “If you want to be a writer,…