I have two places to find books when I want to know what to read next. It was strange to me that in those two separate places I found first Moriarty and then Holmes, two books I adored. 1. My Mother’s Kindle A while back, my six-year-old dropped my electronic book. This is what I… Read more
2016
Jessica Lewis, the trombone soloist in our band, reminds me of Marci Kobayashi-Smith, my good friend in high school. Jessica is tall, with cropped dark hair and skin like the color of vanilla ice cream. She plays in the toasty church where we practice, wearing a knit hat in a quirk that Marci did not have but I wouldn’t… Read more
Over ten years ago, I took a class on adult psychology in a small classroom on Pill Hill in Seattle. The professor stood in front of us in a button up shirt with slacks that blended into the dark background of the room behind. As he described his experience of a wrenching divorce, he said he… Read more
Last Sunday, I went to the closing ceremony of the Whitney Memorial United Methodist Church, a congregation of Japanese Americans who voted to shut their doors this spring. I sat in the back of Puyallup United Methodist Church in a different pew from where I sit most Sundays. Here I saw Shirley DeLarme and Ann Berney… Read more
Criticism and rejection are the best parts of becoming a writer or other artist. I know. That’s insane. Even as I write this, I am avoiding re-reading critiques I recently received. I am avoiding it like I avoided driving down the icy road where my van slid and almost tipped over the edge of a cliff last January… Read more
The moment I waved the gate card at the unresponsive lock, I knew I should have read the email before making the hour and a half drive out to Lake Trask. My boys and I looked up to see the sign on the gate boldly telling us to park our vehicle and check in at… Read more
The other day my son said, “You know you’ve got a LOT of books on writing on your bookshelf. Have you read all of those?” Mostly, I told him. (He wasn’t particularly impressed — just astounded that I could stay focused for that long on reading books about putting words on paper.) And he doesn’t even… Read more
It’s an absolutely crazy idea but one of my colleagues and I are going to start an art club at work. It’s crazy because who has that kind of time? It’s crazy because I should focus more on my writing. It’s crazy because we so often want to flee the building at the end of… Read more