Category Archives: Writing The Thing

Now Some Thoughts on Writing

This past weekend I printed out all of the chapters I think will make up the book that I have been working on in some shape or form for over twenty years. I have not researched old journals to pinpoint … Continue reading

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Chapter 3: A Memoir

The trouble with goals is that you’re constantly working toward what you used to want. ~Sarah Manguso from 300 Arguments I keep this notebook of the memoir I’m working on, and it has sat collecting dust for the past two … Continue reading

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Chapter 1: A Memoir

Ten months ago, I wrote this pretentious somewhat overwrought blurb for the book that I was going to write. Ten months later, I have a draft with some reasonable heft, and nine chapters. So here goes. The first assignment of … Continue reading

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Finishing The Thing

Bovary is not exactly racing along: two pages in a week! Sometimes I am so discouraged I could jump out a window. ~Gustav Flaubert Last weekend, the mister and I went on a hot date to the public library. We … Continue reading

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Like A Pentimento

It’s like finding that the sky and the sun are always there and that it’s the storms and the clouds that come and go. ~Pema Chödrön Lately I’ve been reading my old work journals. I keep my writing about work … Continue reading

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Unreliable Narrator

“When you’re from somewhere else, you think there’s a promise to California. I don’t know if it’s some cellular thing–like your ancestors in the wagon train only made it as far as Ohio and you’re completing the journey–or it’s the … Continue reading

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The Kind of People Who Leave Dirt on the Floor

A good many dramatic situations begin with screaming. ~Barbarella When I was a little girl, maybe no more than ten, I remember telling my dad I wanted to be a hairdresser when I grew up. He cut me off before … Continue reading

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Storm Chaser

This past weekend I stayed in a very rustic cabin on Camano Island during a power outage caused by a wind storm. The power went out when I got there at 6pm on Friday, and it didn’t come on again … Continue reading

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Twelve Things & #AmWriting

It takes work to shift your focus from the smudges on the windows to the view outside. ~Heather Havrilesky I’ve shifted my focus a bit on the social media since the start of the year just as an experiment, and … Continue reading

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Stretching Into Change

One stranger who understands your experience exactly will do for you what hundreds of close friends and family who don’t understand cannot. It is the necessary palliative for the pain of stretching into change. It is the cool glass of … Continue reading

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