“The father of a daughter is nothing but a high-class hostage. A father turns a stony face to his sons, berates them, shakes his antlers, paws the ground, snorts, runs them off into the underbrush, but when his daughter puts her arm over his shoulder and says, ‘Daddy, I need to ask you something,’ he is a pat of butter in a hot frying pan.” ~ Garrison Keillor
I’m always curious how the creative process unfolds for other writers. For me it goes like this, and I’m speaking now of when inspiration moves over me, not when I’m staring at a blinking cursor. Though it doesn’t happen often enough, there are times when I think I’ll come out of my skin if I don’t get the…
The protagonist of my novel is not actually the biological father of his eldest son. The boy doesn’t know this, however, and unaware of his true identity, he begins to develop a romantic interest in a young girl with whom he might be related. Trouble. Today as you are thinking of and celebrating your own…
Here’s an old post from my previous blog 50 shimmering pages. March 13, 2013 Yesterday, I spent the afternoon talking to 169 fifth graders. I was joined by a singer/songwriter, a policeman/karate instructor, a marine, and a nurse. The program was sponsored by a local nonprofit with a mission to help women and children explore…
Way back in 2008, I attended AWP in NYC, returning home as always with a head full of new ideas about publishing and writing. But one thing, above all else, lingers with me about that trip. Earlier in the week, I’d met two of my best writer pals, Karen and Susan, at the airport in…
“Hemingway Never Did This” by Charles Bukowski I read that he lost a suitcase full of manuscripts on a train and that they never were recovered. I can’t match the agony of this but the other night I wrote a 3-page poem upon this computer and through my lack of diligence and practice and by…