Acknowledging My Community
Last week I finished my first pass page proofs for Shadow Child, my new novel coming out in May. I started it in the year 2000. Holding those pages in my hands, with their elegant design and their printing marks, I was amazed at how much effort has gone into the...
Getting Unstuck – Tarot for Writers
Sometimes I feel like my whole year has been in Mercury retrograde. With one thing after another, there has been a lot of waiting, a lot of postponing, and a lot of loss. I have been stuck—in situations that are not my choosing, with no path forward—and in talking...
When You Are Overwhelmed
This last month has left me reeling. My father passed away suddenly, and what spins into that (as we raced across the country to say goodbye), and out of that (in the long process of settling and celebrating his life) is a lot to do and feel. Add to that that my...
Loss
We are living in a time of reversals, losses. There are political shifts, yes, but also very immediate human suffering, both on the incomprehensible level of war, aggression, terror, refugees, exclusion, and brutality, and also the personal level of the individual. ...
Going Deeper
Every day, I work with writers. From those who are just starting out, gathering their thoughts and looking for tools, to those who have been published. Right now, I am sending off my last letters of advice to my MFA students at Goddard College, and I am also trying to...
Tarot for Writers: Awakening!
Do you need help grounding your writing? Want to know why you can’t focus, or what you should be focusing on? Maybe you want to know how to go forward. What’s next? Or, if you have come to a fork in the road, how do you choose? When I have questions like these, I...
How To Stop a Bullet
(reposted from The Writer in the World, the blog for the Goddard College MFA in Creative Writing Program) On the plane headed to the Goddard residency in Port Townsend last week, I watched The Music of Strangers, a documentary about the international Silk Road...
“Are You An Activist?” An interview with Hedgebrook
This interview was originally published on the Women Authoring Change blog for Hedgebrook, an amazing retreat for women writers. In their own words, "Our mission is to support visionary women writers whose stories shape our culture now and for generations to come. Our...
On the Art of Waiting for Writing
Recently, Beth Kephart asked me to talk about my writing process and rituals, and writer's block. She shared my answers in her Junctures newsletter. For those of you who don't get her newsletter, here are my answers: I don’t write every day. I don’t write every week...
So. Prince, and…
I am not an expert on Prince. I do not own the purple disk of Purple Rain; I cannot sing every word of every B side. I have not analyzed the Purple One’s sexuality (except to rejoice that there was clearly enough of it for everyone) and have no insight into how or why...