The Writing Life
A Writer’s Lament
In Rebecca Drake’s wonderful suspense novel, Only Ever You, there’s an interchange over dinner between Jill, the protagonist, and an older partner at her husband’s law firm. He inquires as to what she does, and she tells him she’s a photographer. He says that must be “fun.”
Read MoreFiction Writers Get to Play Pretend Part II
So last week, I confessed that one of my fantasy dream jobs as a kid was becoming an advice columnist. My passion for dance took me in a different direction, but
Read MoreFiction Writers Get to Play Pretend
Even as a kid, I loved reading the newspaper, especially the advice columns. The problems people wrote about fascinated me—cheating husbands, in-laws from hell, warring siblings. Long before there was reality television, there was Ann Landers. Half the fun was in reading her salty responses to the letters she received. Not surprisingly, “advice columnist” landed…
Read MoreIn My Next Life, I Want to Be Dean Koontz
Okay. I admit it. I’m incredibly jealous of Dean Koontz. It’s not just his prodigious talent and prolific success as a writer. It’s also that he still writes on an old Commodore word processor. He’s never bothered to learn how to do email. If he needs to send a message, he simply writes it out…
Read MorePlaying the “What If" Game
The other day I put my one year old grandson Milo down for his morning nap and retreated to my desk to do some writing, baby monitor in hand. He fell asleep quickly. I eagerly opened up my lap top, figuring I had a good hour and a half to work before he woke up.…
Read MoreAre We Always Writing the Same Book?
Years ago, I was at a writer’s conference chatting with a New York book editor. He asked me who my favorite YA writer was. I named her, and he said rather dismissively, “Yes, she’s good, but she always writes the same book.” To which I replied, “But it’s such a good book.” In fact, there…
Read MoreEaves-Dropping for Inspiration
My husband gave me a gift certificate to my favorite consignment shop for our anniversary. For months, I put off using it. I was knee deep in writing the first draft of my third novel. But the minute I typed “The End,” I celebrated by grabbing my certificate and heading to “Nearly New.” I love…
Read MoreSeven Weeks of Togetherness
For years, I was in a writer’s critique group that included two wonderful writers whose husbands had retired and were now hanging around the house “all the time.” Oh my, the complaints I heard! “Every time I really get involved in a scene, he comes in and wants to show me or tell me something.…
Read MoreYou Might Be a Writer If…
Stepping through the doors of any library and combing the shelves for treasures qualifies as one of life’s most exciting adventures. Really. Recently, I came across Neil Gaiman’s poignant and humorous Newbery Medal Acceptance speech for his novel, The Graveyard Book (2008). In it, he speaks of his devouring (literally) the books at his local…
Read MoreFrom Dancer to… Writer?
Originally posted on May 21, 2015 After spending decades as a dancer and choreographer, I often get puzzled expressions from folks when I tell them I’m now writing fulltime. “Don’t you get antsy?” they ask. “All that ‘butt-in-chair’ time after years of leaping around?” Well, yes. I’m only too glad to get up from my…
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