Category Archives: Writing

A Perfect Universe Contains Imperfections

‘Fessing our faults is freeing. Fear of not being perfect holds us back. I once made a terrific blunder while working at The Southampton Press. I wrote that a proposed school budget was $14,000,000 when it was only $12,000,000 (or … Continue reading

Posted in Being a Hero In Your Life, How to Change Your Life, self-printing, Writers, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Specific Versus Generic: Marketing Your Best Chapters

I’m all set to launch THE MOM WHO TOOK OFF ON HER MOTORCYCLE! I even made a cute little movie which I haven’t yet uploaded to youtube.com about the Mom Who Took Off’s important tips for raising kids. (Like, make … Continue reading

Posted in How to Change Your Life, Writers, Writing, Your Best Chapter | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Claire Cook: We’ve All Got The Power To Make Our Own Dreams Come True

Best-sellling author Claire Cook’s latest book, Wallflower in Bloom, is a delightful story of Deidre Griffin finally finding her own courage to step out from behind her brother Tag’s shadow. Tag is a famous self-made guru and the book follows … Continue reading

Posted in Being a Hero In Your Life, Self-care, Writers, Writing, Your Best Chapter | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Best Way Not to Ruin Somebody Else’s Best Chapter

My younger son read a book — let’s just call it A Good Book for our purposes –and then encouraged my older son to read it. My older son began the book and was reading it at his own pace. This … Continue reading

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Long Weekends: What Not to Do

The lonely, the sad, the dispersed, the displaced: some of the people who don’t like long weekends. Long weekends are like New Year’s Eve. They can make you weep. I came across this poem by Vikram Seth.  in the Case … Continue reading

Posted in Lily and her stories, Self-care, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Bad Reality, Great Story

Sometimes when we’re going through something and it hurts, it feels like we’re never going to get out of it and it’s never going to not hurt. Clichéd expressions  like “this too shall pass” don’t make us feel any better … Continue reading

Posted in Being a Hero In Your Life, Self-care, Uncategorized, Writers, Writing, Your Best Chapter | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

FiveTips For Writing — And Living — Our Best Chapter

It’s Friday, writer’s workshop day, and today I’ll be talking about the five ways that living our best chapter will help us to write our best chapter – and vice versa. We don’t have to be miserable to write well. … Continue reading

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A Writer’s Question: What Course Should I Take?

Media alert: I just got my award from Media Bistro for winning First Prize in Family Circle’s Fiction Contest! I get a one-year’s subscription to their how to video library – which includes 555 videos on so many subjects it’s … Continue reading

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All We Can Do Is Go Around Telling The Truth

Literary biographer Virginia Spencer Carr died today. She’s author of one of my favorite biographies, The Lonely Hunter, about Carson McCullers, who was one of my favorite writers. Carr’s book about McCullers was so compassionate and empathetic that McCullers’ widowed … Continue reading

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Life is Not A Test: You will Not Be Graded. You Will Always Be Applauded. (If You At Least Try.)

“Good writing…explodes in the reader’s face,” Joy Williams said. “Whenever the writer writes, it’s always three or four or five o’clock in the morning in his head.” When we write, we have to stumble forward recklessly, passionately, and willy-nilly, using only … Continue reading

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