This Sunday is the day! We’ll be crafting our SoulBooks by cutting, gluing, sharing stories, and smiling. All the while, we’ll be remembering what’s most important to us. Here’s what Diane, Ruth, and I worked up for our first day: Introductions and setting an intention for ourselves Share exerpts from Braving the Wilderness by Brene… Read more
creativity
My mother has always been so good at visual art that I never thought I would be able to do it. My earliest memories are of her using oils to paint Mt. Rainier while we lived in Sequim. Many years of my childhood passed by in art supply stores where my sister and I… Read more
So here’s a thing that happens to me with writing. If I write something awful, starting the next piece feels like wading through a muck-filled bog. “What if it stinks of skunk cabbage like last time?” I ask myself. If I write something wonderful, starting the next piece feels like wading though a muck-filled bog. “It can never be… 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
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
A short while back, I listened to a T.V. screenwriter explain his process while making the series Colony. Carlton Cuse described a large room filled with writers throwing ideas around the room that bounced off of one another and grew bigger, taking shape and then forming storylines. The creator of the series Lost told the interviewer he… Read more
I am stuck. I have a deadline of May 19th to finish revising my novel and it won’t let me move forward. Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten side tracked with writing for the band I play with. Maybe it’s because the day job has been especially demanding lately. Maybe it’s because the cottonwood covering the… Read more
I do kid crafts. Sometimes I do them without kids. My latest big idea was a Leap Year Day with a frog theme. (Get it? Leap? Frog? I found this grand idea surfing around the Internet.) I planned to make a time capsule out of a Pringles can, green construction paper and various cheap decor… Read more