It’s bright and early on a Monday morning and I can hear this low little whisper in the back cobwebbed corner of my brain. Psst, it goes, trying to get my undistracted attention. This is the week your book comes out. The voice isn’t taunting me as some voices do: This is the week my … Continue reading »
Let me just start off by saying I hope this doesn’t sound morbid. But I was reading up on a medical test I am having next week, and what the test is looking for, and realized there is a very slim chance it could be something serious, and of course being who I am my … Continue reading »
Fair warning: This post will be tinged with a sheen of failure—even though I do feel kind of hopeful right now, and I’ll explain why at the end. How many of us made resolutions for 2012 that we didn’t keep? How many of us said we’d do things this year—write certain things, cease bad habits, … Continue reading »
I sometimes look around and realize I’m living a strange life—well, “strange” by the standards of what a woman in her thirties (I refuse to say the number out loud or write it down) might be living. I haven’t given my mom grandchildren. Every time I see her and I think of her with her … Continue reading »
The title of this post? I said those exact words yesterday. I’m a few days from finishing this round of revision and turning it in. I’m a mess. I’m trying so hard. I have no perspective anymore. I’m forcing myself to work at a pace that’s unnatural to me—in my natural state, it would take … Continue reading »
(Design & illustration by Robert Roxby) The book that terrified me when I was twelve years old isn’t a ghost story. It’s not a horror novel, either (though I did read all of my stepfather’s Stephen King novels—I basically read anything in the house that had words on it, including all my mom’s Atwood, Walker, Piercy, … Continue reading »
I know I only just finished the first draft of a novel, but while I take a break from working on that one, while I wait for revision, it’s the perfect time to play around on Tumblr—kidding—it’s actually the perfect time to try to articulate ideas for another book. It’s the articulation part of this … Continue reading »
Here’s a little piece of writing advice I give myself. I give it a lot, but it’s always worth hearing: Tomorrow is a new day. Today can be a big nothing. Today can equal 0 in word count, or deep into the negatives below 0 if I get carried away cutting. I can feel like … Continue reading »
Sometimes the world shifts, violently, and everything that seemed important sheds away to show what is. I’m reevaluating. I’m feeling the need to be silent now, but I’ll be back soon. Continue reading »
Apologies for any confusion over the blog posts from long ago—from 2006 to be exact, a very difficult and dramatic year for me—suddenly making themselves known in your RSS reader if you happened to notice that this weekend. I have *not* been reeling from an awful rejection (which one of those posts seems to indicate)… … Continue reading »
