“Life is trying things to see if they work.”-Ray Bradbury
“Life is trying things to see if they work.”-Ray Bradbury
Ideas often come alive for me at strange or inconvenient moments. After the ever-trusty shower, I usually feel the most open to creativity when I am…….
walking amongst graves. My husband and I are lucky to live a few minutes from the second largest cemetery in the United States. Established in 1845, it is equally an arboretum, with 15 lakes, trees, flowers and wildlife set within what, at times, looks like traditional parkland. Continue reading
“A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.”-Frank Capra
Now that we are on the edge of Spring, I expect every day to be as wonderful as yesterday was: balmy and lovely and energizing. When I kicked open the door at work at 12:40 and skipped out onto the sidewalk (yes, this really happened), it almost felt as if I was playing hooky from my pesky work-a-day obligations. Instead, I simply transitioned from one self to another, from something practical to something vital and necessary.
I spent a couple of happy, creative and stimulating hours in the company of a dozen talented women (and my husband!), as we recorded a Spring-themed podcast for Women Writing for (a) Change. Regular readers of this blog will recognize my piece as one that originally posted here, ‘Intermezzo: The Sky is Flaunting Itself‘. The podcast will be available later this month. It is a must-hear for anyone eager to push away the cobwebs of the dying dark season. You will be inspired by words of regeneration, beauty and clarity. I will update you with the particulars as they become available.
You may have noticed that we’ve recently been sticking to just the basics-Project 366, Voices from the Grave, etc. There’s nothing to fear, really! We are working on some snazzy, more comprehensive additions to the blog. You’ll start seeing new things as early as next week. We have grand plans for the month of March and the dawning of Spring. We cannot wait to share them with you. We know your time is precious; thank you for letting us share our small press passion with you. 
Yoko Ono stole my commission. Behind that sweet face is a heart sated with greed. She walked away with three of my customers. Each time I stood there, mouth hanging open mid-sentence, she just kept on smiling. Saying soothing things to them, never missing a beat; her theft audacious under the fluorescent lights. Wide-eyed, brown-eyed, soul-eyed. No hint of wrong-doing troubled her placid face. She took their sales, pocketed their money, said strange things and sent them on their way as if nothing was wrong in her world. It wasn’t. Each time she turned to me, pirouetted, and grinned. “This is how it is done. This is how you make a sale. It’s easy. Follow my lead and you’ll be just like me, my dear.” I kept tumbling after her, now sure that she was right: I really could learn a lot by watching her. She’s crafty, serene, enigmatic. I suddenly, forcefully knew that she isn’t driven by greed at all. A few seconds later I looked over, expecting to be gifted with her smile and odd natural wisdom. She wasn’t there. The sun was hitting my face.
As most of you know, I recently rearranged my writing studio. Okay, full disclosure time: I’m still actively working on it, after nearly 3 weeks of mostly dedicated effort. It may look lovely to the casual observer but, lurking beneath the neat surface, is my hideous secret: it’s really a mess. Tucked inside of the cabinets and chests and drawers is a dark, sloppy, sordid underbelly of….paper. Continue reading
I’m very particular when it comes to the ordering of my writing room. I’ve been back in my studio for nearly two weeks, and have been spending a lot of my spare-and not so spare-time tweaking the hell out of my surroundings. I’m not interested in perfection, which is too bad; that would be remarkably easier to achieve! Oh, I have all of the big basics in place-modern IKEA desk, vintage chair, shelves, design and storage space. What I’m looking for is more along the lines of the “I’ll know it when I see it/feel it” school of aesthetic and psychological satisfaction. I’m creeping closer to that amorphous goal by the day, one kooky tchotchke or inspirational magazine clipping at a time. Anything more committal and I feel like I’m slogging through molasses. My goal? To see a strange, beautiful and rotating array of images and words, books and art whenever I glance up from my keyboard, fingers fleetingly paused mid-stroke before they fall, deftly yet heavily, in service to another sentence. To be cocooned by creativity. That’s happiness.
I’ve nearly forgotten that I’m a fiction writer. Oh, don’t misunderstand me: I’m as faithless as they come. I could never hold steady or true to that vocation, even though I get so taken up with a story that the world without disappears. I still stray. Every single time, satisfaction be damned. Continue reading