Grabbing the Running Line
• Day S E V E N • Harvester Island Writers Workshop Friday, Sept. 9, 2022 Today’s post is a retrospective within a retrospective. Confusing I know. Stay with me. In the chronology of writing camp, we’re at Friday 9-9, the last full day. Tonight we’ll feast on Dungeness crab and the reading of each other’s stories.
Falling in Love with Nouns and Verbs
• Day O N E • Harvester Island Writers Workshop Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022 It’s noon. A spit-polished group of strangers pack tightly into the living room of Leslie Leyland Fields, our host and writing instructor for the Harvester Island Writers’ Workshop. She’s in my Mount Rushmore of writers. I try to stay chill and not to
How To Find a Pain-Free Life
Forever, I’ve wanted to remodel my master bathroom, but it beat me to it. It remodeled me. What were the builders of my step-down shower thinking? Let’s drop a fifteen-square foot hole in the house, line it with slick ceramic tile, and not install grab bars. What could possibly go wrong? I’m sure the Turkish-bathhouse vibe
Go Get Your Life
Chase the dream. Write the book. Say the apology. Forgive the offense. Say the hard yes. Say the hard no. Toss the fraud tapes. Play the God tapes. Rip the bandage off. Lance the wound. Pursue the healing. Put boundaries up. Put armor on. Put yourself out there. Make heaven crowded. Go get your life.
Time to Dust Off Your Dream
Maybe it’s time to dust off your dream. Think it’s too late? Think you’re too old? Past your prime? Here’s a little 411: Julia Child enrolled in cooking school at age 36. Madeleine Albright started her diplomatic career at age 40. Nora Ephron (who started as a mail girl when Newsweek told her they didn’t
How to be a failer, not a failure
I want you to fail. I mean that in the nicest possible way. I’ll explain. I’ve been thinking a lot about bravery. It’s just so untidy. It forces us to grapple with our fear of failure. It makes us go with the tools we’ve got when we’d rather polish them, rearrange them, or, wait until