Writing is a Solitary Pursuit. Being Read, a Sociable One.

Writing is a solitary pursuit. I remember telling my professor-uncle I wanted to be a writer. His response was that I should prepare for a painful, lonely existence. I was in college and had taken a few writing classes. Still high on workshop praise and being ever the pragmatist, I decided writing was the "career"…

Spontaneous 7 Oxymoron: Thin-Skinned Writer

  If you're a writer, you may start out thin-skinned, but if you're to survive, you can't possibly stay that way. Most writers fall into the craft because of some strategically-timed compliments, generally given by authority figures and well-meaning English teachers in our formative years. This is usually coupled with an insatiable appetite for reading.…

An Invitation to FLOG This Writer AND…I Got Shot

In Spontaneous 5 I mentioned spending upwards of seven (it was actually more like ten) hours on my first page. Well, you can see the fruit of that labor and even vote anonymously whether or not you'd keep reading my work HERE. This is me, begging you. I'm not asking for strokes. Vote your conscience.…

Spontaneous 5: Where’s the Beef?

Ever wonder why that would-be writer is taking FOR. EVER to produce something? I mean, Where's the beef? You've been at this for, what? –a year? So and so writer churns them out with the regularity of vegan bowel movements, and you're still just...writing? Here's how non-writers regard book-writing. They take the time it took…

Spontaneous 4: How Can This Get Any Worse?

If you're a cup half-empty person, you're always asking and answering that question. I am, admittedly, a prophet of doom. I can ALWAYS see how things can get worse. Just ask my husband. He'll tell you about the giant trees that stood majestically on our front lawn, the ones I imagined falling. Not in just…

Weekend Coffee Share…Lion or Gazelle?

Sometimes I slug the coffee down. Sometimes I sip. Depends on what I'm trying to achieve. What's on my mind as I wrap my hands around a steaming mug of superhero? Lions and gazelles. I've got Africa fever lately. My sister lives there. My husband's going there. I just put an Africa-shaped blood stain in one…

Unexpected Kindnesses

It's been 2+ months since my brain surgery, and I'm clawing my way back to the level of energy I once enjoyed—happy to be thus clawing. When I am tired and things don't get done, I smile and thank God I'm alive, that I'm here to sink into the couch after pulling a bit of…