Notes From the Toolbox
The Inevitability of Return
Bang the drum, toot the horn, and ring the chimes for victory!— No, I didn’t snag the agent or the book deal, but thanks for believing and sending those positive vibes— my developmental editor sent the last round of feedback. It’s not too shabby. I’m so proud of you....
Get Yourself An Editor
Jump back— to 1991 and the film Fried Green Tomatoes based on Fannie Flagg’s novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, starring Kathy Bates and Jessica Tandy. Bate’s character, Evelyn, is an unhappy, restless forty-something housewife who is “too old to be...
Post-Writing Blues?!?!
Breaking News— Round two of the Big Edit Revision is complete. Yay! I love how the manuscript has changed from what I thought was nothing more than a simple story of a woman owning her independence to a full-bodied journey of a woman on a rocky road to forgiveness....
Are You Still Thinking About Amanda Gorman?
For much of my life, I prayed to be someone else. Several of my career paths sprouted because of the magnetism and expertise of musicians, dancers, actors, teachers— writers. I was oblivious to this pattern of behavior until Kundalini Yoga whispered to me, “I’ve been...
Writing Voodoo
January 20, 1980 was Super Bowl Sunday. I spent the day moving into the thirteenth floor of a dormitory on the campus of Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, Illinois, where my ex-husband was in pursuit of his MA in geology. In addition to his studies, he was...
Writing with a Maddeningly Lack of Urgency
Anyone searching for a slice of inner peace this week? The struggle is real. More, or less difficult depending on the circumstances of your particular life. No thanks, I think I’ll skip the Kurt Vonnegut novels right now, I’m living them. And yet, I’m not. Jump back—...
The Big Resolution Edit
2021 arrived. Today marks a full week of newness. But my little acreage of world doesn’t feel any different. Does yours? Covid-19 is still covid-ing up the death toll— especially in these United- cough- States— and all the baggage that goes along with it is alive and...
Turning Point Books 2020
Life’s latrine dumped itself on us this year. The bad and the ugly gave good love a workout. But love never tires; it’s the heat of life; it rises; it removes obstacles and illuminates hope. And that’s all the philosophizing this gal can do on the last day of the year...
Who-ville Envy
Tis the season for menorahs and stars; and stockings and presents— did someone say books?— and ho-ho-ho, and cookies and fruitcake and snow, snow, snow. And the Grinch. The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season! Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite...
Writing’s Kick
I don’t want to be here. But I don’t want to be on the page of the other document either— the one under the Big-Edit microscope. It was my intention to cut short my Saturday reading and finish the current chapter— the one that’s been plaguing me. It took a happy turn...