Recently, a lot of people I know have had laryngitis.  It’s allergy season here in Nashville, and we have also had a particularly harsh winter of colds and flu.  while Finn was battling his ear infections with the second round of antibiotics, I had a throat funk that just wouldn’t go away.  I sounded like I did in the old days after smoking half a pack of cigarettes the night before.  Several other people at the salon had the same crud, and we were a miserable bunch——throat-clearing, cough-muffling, and moaning to get ... Read More

My friend Ruby invited us over for lunch today.  She was house sitting for a friend who is a chef and gardener.  The house and setting were amazing—not too far out of town, but far enough that the noise of the city disappeared into a soft drone of birds and the toads that inhabit the Koi ponds. There were way too many things in the house for a foodie to geek-out on: pantries, wine cellars, linen closets.  In the cookbook library, (yes, there is an entire room of bookcases devoted to only cookbooks), I felt like the dorky guy in ... Read More

Finn let us sleep in a little this morning.  My first thought, when I heard him happily babbling in his crib was, maybe I can get another twenty minutes in before he starts crying, and my second was, oh dear, I put up my first chapter last night. Our creative processes are intimate, and it’s scary to share them.  Drink and drugs make it easier, but the buzz always wears off, and we are left with a bad taste in the mouth, the unforgiving light of day, and the same thing we had before the anesthesia: vulnerability. I had prepared ... Read More

1. I want to communicate with an audience, and my audience is you. 2. This novel continues to teach me every time I rewrite it. 3. I want feedback from my readers 4. I like the idea of art for art’s sake 5. I hope that this will be the beginning of dialogue about artistic endeavors, and a place for others to share—a safe community 6. No one has offered to buy it yet, and I’m tired of waiting on “the ... Read More

I told a client about my fiction/blog experiment yesterday.  She is a literature teacher, and she said, “Oh, like serialized fiction in the Victorian Era!”  I nodded my head like I knew what she was talking about, because I was an English major, and should know.  But then, I couldn’t let my curiosity go and I said, “huh?” She told me how much of Charles Dickens work was published in periodicals, Tale of Two Cities among others.  Also, George Macdonald, Thomas Hardy, Sweeney Todd, and Sir Arthur Conan ... Read More

My new friend Sarah put up a post on her blog last night in regards to the conversation about female friendships.  Read it first, and then see what I was thinking during our conversation: Sarah: What do you know about Seattle Pacific’s MFA program? Me: I’ve heard it’s a great school, and know that their journal IMAGE is really cool. You could form some great connections. *why does she think I know anything about MFA programs?  I only have my undergrad.  I should have gotten my masters.  Maybe I could still do it. . .God, ... Read More

I’ve already talked about how I struggle in female friendships. I’m learning to accept that some friendships are seasonal, and not meant to survive a lifetime’s worth of ups and downs.  Sometimes proximity and lifestyle separate us, and that’s okay—though it does hurt.  We need community, I don’t think there is any way around that.  Isolation can be dangerous. I’m an introvert by nature, but this blog is allowing me to put myself out there.  My challenge to myself is to be as authentic as ... Read More