Blog

Yesterday my son called me to say thank you for being his mom since he and his girlfriend just got a puppy, and they are being kept awake and feel overwhelmed. “You were the best puppy,” I said. “Just perfect.” He really was. He slept, he smiled, he made us laugh and cry and feel like the luckiest parents in the world. He also obliterated my ability to detach, to write, to manage to be the struggling writer I had been in Manhattan replaced by being a struggling mother in Dallas, Texas. He owned me completely and knew it. He came after a childhood filled with anxiety and careless violence, an adolescence shadowed by sexual assault, alcoholism and major tragedies, the sudden death of my beloved best friend, and my sister.

Read More

"Every accomplishment starts with a decision to try" —John F. Kennedy | Because it marks a period of conflict, change, and an opportunity to tell a story that is a marker of the end of childhood. Also, it’s a chance to really learn how to write well, to push against certain restrictions, word count, topic, and practice all the stages of good writing: brainstorming, prewriting, creating a thesis, outlining, writing a powerful conclusion, and then doing it all again in another draft. The college admission essay has a focus, an audience, and can be the first time your student has connected writing with passion. Here’s a description of adolescent development provided by the Upstate Center of Excellence:

Read More

“Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.” —Gloria Steinem | If we agree writing is art like painting or music, why is there so much focus on the selling of writing as opposed to the process? Yes, painters and musicians want to support themselves through their work, but writers are the group that are most likely to be asked the following questions: 1) How much did you get paid? 2) How many books did you sell? 3) When will the movie come out? 4) When will your next novel get published? 5) Are you still writing There are more variations, but the main message is: Are you a real writer? Are you a successful writer? Why don’t you give up, you unpublished fool?

Read More