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The Next Big Thing—Skinny, awkward brown girl
Wendy Call, author of No Word for Welcome (winner of the Grub Street 2011 National Book Prize in Non-Fiction), tagged me in the Internet chain game in which writers answer a set of questions about their next writing project. You can read Wendy’s lovely responses here. Her next book promises to be a lush and…
Read MoreAn Interview with Poet Annette Spaulding-Convy
“Annette Spaulding-Convy was a nun and she is a poet.” This simple sentence by Hilda Raz encapsulates for me the beauty of Annette Spaulding-Convy’s book of poems In Broken Latin. There are the contrasting verb tenses that demarcate past from present, but also at some level suggest a kind of inherent bipolarity. There are the…
Read MoreThe Beauty of a Hedgebrook Salon
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of being one of six workshop leaders at Hedgebrook’s December Salon, a day-long event at this writers retreat for women located on Whidbey Island, WA. The salon was an opportunity for women writers to partake in workshops, conversation, the famous Hedgebrook food and the capstone–a lively open…
Read MoreThe Art of the Long Walk
When my husband dropped me off at Golden Gardens Park last Thursday for the start of the Long Walk, many of the walkers had already assembled. “That’s not your demographic,” he chuckled. Indeed, many of the participants were decades younger than I. But at 59, I’m quite fit, having been a runner for over 30…
Read More“…where the land stops, the sea begins, and the mind keeps going. “
There’s a gem of a writers’ conference in my backyard. Okay, not literally. There’s a ferry ride from Seattle involved and a scenic drive on the Kitsap Peninsula across Hood Canal and up the northeast tip of the Olympic Peninsula to Port Townsend, a seaport city known for its ornate Victorian architecture. The Port Townsend…
Read MoreBlanche Ebbutt’s Advice
Blanche Ebbutt’s little book of advice was first published in 1913 in London and has since been reprinted multiple times and sold in novelty stores. It’s a tiny hardback and is literally a pocketbook, measuring 2¾ inches by 4½ inches. The title is DON’TS FOR HUSBANDS. I bought the book as an anniversary gift for…
Read MoreCreating a Scene with Charles Baxter
One of my favorite sections in Charles Baxter’s The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot is “Creating a Scene.” Baxter points out that “In daily life, a writer may practice conflict-avoidance, but in fiction a writer must welcome conflict and walk straight into it.” I was reminded of this recently when I avoided in real life…
Read MoreThe Big Picture, Loose Ends, and the Dream Deferred at the L.A. Times Festival of Books
At the L.A. Times Festival of Books held April 21 and 22 on the USC campus, I was at the author table at the Philippine Expressions Bookshop booth for two hours each on Saturday and Sunday. The rest of the time was mine to visit other booths, laze in the sun and listen to music…
Read MoreAbout Cheryl Strayed’s WILD
I don’t often read memoir. I’m primarily a reader of fiction, drawn to imagined characters whose stories, when artfully told, hit you in the gut with your own fears, desires, and missteps. (Brief digression to laud the most recent work of fiction I’ve read—the beautifully rendered stories in This is Not Your City by Caitlin…
Read MoreAccordion Dreams
Let me first say that I have never played the accordion in my life. Never even strapped one on for size. Wouldn’t I remember if I had? Wouldn’t I remember the heft of it around my neck, my fingers grazing buttons on one side, hammering away at keys on the other, my forearms squeezing and…
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