Children’s author Julie Hedlund, challenged participants of her 12 Days of Christmas for Writers series to post SUCCESSES (rather than resolutions) on our blogs this year. She believes the way New Year’s resolutions are traditionally made come from a place of negativity – what DIDN’T get done or achieved in the previous year. Instead, she suggests… Read more
Goals
“For this weekend, you get to call yourselves writers loud and proud instead of in a small voice at the end of a long list of other things you do.” My writing teacher Lois Brandt said this (or something very like it) at the beginning of our Weekend on the Water retreat with the Society of Children’s… Read more
Special Note: This is a piece I wrote for the Puyallup Valley Community Band, a group I rehearse and perform with throughout the year. It’s a wonder to me that music can mean so much to so many at all ages. For Katriel Looney, reeds are the biggest problem with playing the clarinet. It’s a constant… Read more
In looking back over the past year on my blog, I’ve noticed something that surprised me and made my writing heart happy. I posted The One and Only Ivan and a Measure of Peace after reading a kid lit book based on his life. The One and Only Ivan is a fictional story about a gorilla based on a… Read more
Writing a novel takes a ridiculously long time. So do many other things that are incredibly worthwhile like raising children, practicing for a concert, or knitting an afghan. (I hope to finish this for my son before he gets too cool for it!) To keep myself going, I create small rewards for myself as I… Read more
As I painted my son’s ceilings over spring break, I listened to the the radio streaming from my computer in the next room. A piece came on about our brains and the effects of skimming material while surfing the Internet in our Information Age. Maryanne Wolf, a cognitive neuroscientist at Tufts University, said that we have… Read more
In a slight change from my usual posts, I’d like to offer you the chance to win a video course through the Brave Girls Club. I took my first course from these ladies in January 2011, the month I learned my dad had pancreatic cancer. Soul Restoration held me together through that time and the… Read more
The Driver’s Licence Guy at the Department of Motor Vehicles where I live has an impossible job. He sits at the front of a snaking line of people in unhappy moods because they must stand in his line. He tells them they have to pay money to have a picture taken that they will invariably… Read more