Spring is upon us at last! I write from the chair next to the window in my second story office from which I can see the apple tree beginning to blossom. In the side yard near my garden is a subspecies of apple that is not crab apple but blooms hot pink like a crab … Continue reading Pleasant Fifty-Year-Old Female
A lot of people heard it two weeks ago but I missed it. I was in the shower. Or maybe the grocery store. Who knows. I heard the year's first thunder last Saturday on a hike with my husband. Oh, you're probably thinking. How nice! They got out for a hike together! We did. And … Continue reading First Thunder
I've been writing fiction again. There is something soulfully familiar about this place where I find myself, or maybe the process I am undertaking, which makes me think, ooh! It's a book! And while it's true that stories feel different from novels, I think I don't want to rush things. And I think what I … Continue reading The Well and The Muse
Writing my first published novel, The Wolf Tone, I found myself inside a nest of opposing ideas. From the book’s general theme to the characters’ dissimilar ages, every idea seemed to have a counterpart. I didn’t exactly plan this. I did not draft the book thinking: I know! I’ll work with incompatible themes and characters … Continue reading Working with Opposites: a craft essay
Readers! I have yet another link to send you. This one takes you to an excerpt from the novel AND a one-question interview featured at the online magazine Hypertext. My one question has to do with the setting of THE WOLF TONE, so I hope you like my answer: https://www.hypertextmag.com
As a freshman at the University of Georgia, I declared an art major. Winter quarter I was registered for my first studio art class, held in the art building, a warehouse-like place with high ceilings and cement floors. Smelling of chalky paint and turpentine, the place felt exotic and intimidating. We sat at long worktables. … Continue reading Encouragement
My debut novel officially releases this month, one month from a Very Significant Birthday for me. I’ve been writing seriously since I was twenty-five, a lifetime ago. My long route to publication might scare younger writers, but it shouldn’t. Some people bloom late, and this is work that must be given the time it needs. … Continue reading The Late Bloomer Speaks
It all changes at age twelve. 99% of middle grade novels feature characters who are twelve and under. For example, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials triology. In this world, all people have a daemon, a spirit animal that lives beside them. Up until puberty, the daemon is a shape shifter, meaning young people possess the … Continue reading Christmas with Teens
I started this blog, or re-started it, almost a year ago to the day. I wrote about thrillers. I wrote about Kate Atkinson and Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes! The year that came after was more epic. War and Peace. David Copperfield meets Anna Karenina. A year of bumps. Ha. Bumps! Troughs. Pinnacles. Roadrunner-style drops off … Continue reading The High-Low Year
I’m off, people. I’m home but I’m gone. Researching, thinking trying to figure out what’s what now that I have outlived my immediate male relatives. Maybe this is a sabbatical? It feels more like a reckoning, honestly. I’m not sure with what. My dreams have featured a fat toddler kidnapped from his mother by a … Continue reading As The World Turns