“To be a writer you must _____” That’s how I start all my beginner classes. I write that sentence on the board and wait until somebody comes up with the missing word. (It’s “write.”) The point: You don’t get to be a writer by hoping or earning degrees or reading about writing. You have to [...]

I am an author-mother in a predicament: I need to ask my son to stop reading. That’s right, to stop reading. My son wasn’t one of those very early or very precocious readers, and there were moments when I wondered if he’d take to it at all. Well into first grade, he was happy to [...]

In my last post I wrote about turning my studio into a retreat, my own private Breadloaf, a one-woman MacDowell Colony. There my imagination would roam unhindered by worries about everything that’s going on in the world at large, and the publishing world in particular. Such a charming idea. But I want to change the [...]

Often the best souvenirs writers bring back from Trips To Away are fresh new books to write – or a whole new committment to our art.  When we leave our homes, computers, and regular schedules, we become untethered. All the assumptions and paradigms that restrict us as writers suddenly come into question. Wide open, we float [...]

Waiting for the print-publishing world to settle down and start buying again a a real downer. You can start to spend way too much time trying to read the minds of editors and publishers. You wonder if you should change your style. Switch subjects? Do a complete rewrite of the manuscript you love?  And surely [...]

Barbie as computer software engineer has been creating quite a controversy. I’ve read about it in the Wall Street Journal and heard about it on NPR. Apparently Barbie has an annual career theme! Who knew? Even more astounding, an organized effort among female computer geeks hijacked the voting for Barbie’s annual career choice. They wanted [...]