Readers of my memoir, Swimming with Maya, often approach and say something like, “After reading your story, I feel as if I know you as an intimate friend. Wasn’t it hard to be so open about your life?” Now, I find myself tested again as I put my marriage under the...
Writing
Setting Intentions for 2021
“Intentions are the soul’s desires coming into physical manifestation.” –Wayne Dyer Every January, I like to reflect on the past twelve months and set intentions for the coming brand new ones, focusing on the qualities I want to manifest more than the things I want to...
A Calling Not A Job
Last month I celebrated five years of retirement from corporate editing. It seems like a lifetime ago – I don’t live where I used to, or think like I used to, or do what I used to. And the world has shifted radically in five years. Everything looks different now. Work...
The Writing Life
My process as a writer is messy. It’s made of equal parts exhilaration and despair, moments of wanting to chuck it all, followed by renewed determination. I’ve been in a Dosi-do for the last four months as I plow through revisions of my 282-page novel interspersed...
Are You a Writer?
Waiting for the muse to descend so you can write is, sadly, a tragic fallacy. “Writing is 99 percent perspiration, and one percent inspiration,” a wise person once said. Writing is work, and like any job, it requires commitment and sustained focus. I recently taught a...
Dealing with Noise that Drives you Crazy
I’m sitting in the balcony at Farley’s East Café at a “Shut Up and Write Meetup” attempting to block out the buzz. I could have stayed home. Here, though, I can’t dodge work by starting a load of laundry or suddenly deciding to vacuum. I’m fighting a largely hidden...
A Collection of Shells
"What's this, Mimi?" My granddaughter Francesca pointed at a glass vase of shells on my desk. "That's my shell collection," I said. Her blonde curls bounced as she nodded her head, "Oh," she said, "Can I play with them?" "If you're careful. Some are very fragile, they...
On Retreat
I joke that I’m a recovering Catholic, but really, Catholicism is not something you get over. From time to time, I find myself in a Catholic church, bathed in incense, surrounded by candles, flowers, and statues of the Virgin Mary. I spent many hours immersed in...
The Virtual Life of an Author
Friday I launched my new website. We reached dozens of people and had more than 250 views on the site as a result of posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We did it all from my kitchen table using a live Facebook video feed. I prefer interacting with friends, fans...
Building my Website – Behind the Scenes
As with any construction project, it took longer and cost more than my initial plans, pitting a beautiful vision against the reality of time constraints, competing priorities, and hard work. Rebranding myself as a writer was challenging – and a lot of fun. The project...