Saturday, January 29, 2022

The Big SIX-OH!

 I sent flowers to my mom every year on my birthday every year from the time I was a teenager until she passed away in 2014. As #5 of 6 kids, the day I was born - January 29, 1962 - was probably the only day it was just her and me. 

Mom was a writer, a newspaper editor, and a savant musician who could play anything with strings, keys, or foot pedals. She went by her middle name, Lois, but her first name was Wilma, which I thought was awesome because Wilma is obviously the best Flintstones character. 

She opened the door and brought me into a beautiful world 60 years ago today. I'm celebrating all the gifts Mom gave me, including my life and a deep love of language.

Here's the book she wrote about the building of the Fort Peck Dam.

Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Virginia Woolf's Golden Rule and my room of a writer's own

“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”

office pup Dexter Weasley

Office vibe has a huge impact on the quantity and quality of the work I deliver. My personal rules for max office efficacy:

1) Every object must earn its footprint. For me, that means everything in this room has to A) serve and purpose and B) make me happy. Utilitarian + Joy = worth it. And yes, art serves a purpose. If it's the right art. And the right dog is worth his weight in gold.

2) Nothing but work happens in the workspace. My most precious natural resources, time and space, are both limited. Word games, social media, and frittering are better done on the beach. 

3) I work at home; I do not live at work. The meta goal is a happy, healthy life. Be like the Ghostbusters: Don't cross the streams. 


"For my belief is that...if we have five hundred a year each of us and rooms of our own; if we have the habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think; if we escape a little from the common sitting–room and see human beings not always in their relation to each other but in relation to reality; and the sky. too, and the trees or whatever it may be in themselves; if we face the fact, for it is a fact, that there is no arm to cling to, but that we go alone and that our relation is to the world of reality and not only to the world of men and women, then the opportunity will come and the dead poet who was Shakespeare’s sister will put on the body which she has so often laid down."

Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

Monday, January 17, 2022

It's happening...

 This winter, in celebration of my 60th birthday, I'm releasing fresh editions of my first six books, featuring fabulous cover art by Kapo Ng. Watch this space!


Wednesday, January 12, 2022

It's happening...

 This winter, in celebration of my 60th birthday, I'm releasing fresh editions of my first six books, featuring fabulous cover art by Kapo Ng. Watch this space!


Sunday, January 09, 2022

It's happening...

 This winter, in celebration of my 60th birthday, I'm releasing fresh editions of my first six books, featuring fabulous cover art by Kapo Ng. Watch this space!


Wednesday, January 05, 2022

It's happening...

 This winter, in celebration of my 60th birthday, I'm releasing fresh editions of my first six books, featuring fabulous cover art by Kapo Ng. Watch this space!


Tuesday, January 04, 2022

It's happening...

 This winter, in celebration of my 60th birthday, I'm releasing fresh editions of my first six books, featuring fabulous cover art by Kapo Ng. Watch this space!