Completely random
Shatter
It’s summer. My car, with which during the school year I drive the highway so often I could do it in my sleep, stays in the garage. I take long walks instead. Occasionally with my husband, less often with one of my children, even more rarely with the whole family. We’re at the stage in…
Read MoreHow to Create Readers
Hi there! I’m over at Writer Unboxed, talking about a topic that is very dear to my heart — how to create readers and read more yourself. (Hint: It has nothing to do with balancing books on your head.) Please stop by and let me know what you think!
Read MoreAll Story, No Plot (Or, Hit Me With Your Best Shot.)
I love the holidays. I love the tree, I love baking cookies and gingerbread with my kids, I love the presents, I love the peace, and I especially love the TWO WHOLE WEEKS off from school. If we could only have snow and have it be 80 degrees at the same time, I’d be in…
Read MoreCan Creativity Be Organized?
It may come as a surprise, but I’m not the most organized person in the world. (My husband and mother don’t need to chime in on this.) My organizational strategies are few, but hard-won: The keys go on the hook right when I walk in the door, or I lose them. The phone goes on…
Read MoreDid You Miss Me?
I think, somewhere between when I opened my eyes in June and blinked in September, there was a thing called summer. I have memories of warm beach days, dripping ice cream, hot buttery lobster rolls, the smell of suntan lotion and chlorine, but they happened so fast it’s as if I dreamed them. On the…
Read MoreNaming of Parts — Odds Are
I was going to link to this poem today — it is one of my favorites and I try to read it every spring. But it is gray and rainy here, so I thought we needed something more upbeat. In my family, I am notorious for becoming infatuated with a song and playing it obsessively,…
Read MorePeas and Publishing
Last week I was sitting on Rory, listening to my instructor correct some point or other in my riding, and another person in the class commented on what a lovely head set Rory had as he stood there. His head and spine were perfectly rounded, he was mouthing the bit, and he looked like a…
Read MoreOh, Tuesday, How Do You Appear So Quickly?
So yesterday was a holiday here in the states. Which means my children had the day off. They are mostly very good at entertaining me — they build snowmen, they make up crazy dances, they try and explain their electronic games to me — the upshot of which is that I have a hard time…
Read MoreFor Best
My daughter is blessed to have people in her life who love her and enjoy sending her beautiful things to wear. We spent lots of the holiday at home on the couch, reading and watching movies. I mostly did that in jeans (sometimes pajamas) but my daughter often chose to wear her new clothes. She…
Read MoreDon't Think. It Can Only Hurt the Ball Club.
We had a chance to take a last-minute trip last week, to Ireland. When we were lucky enough to go two years ago, I had plenty of advance notice. That meant I checked out the six-disc audio book on Ireland’s history, signed us up for online Irish lessons, collected movies on Irish culture, and basically…
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