Chocolate Won’t Get You Unstuck: This Writer’s Internal Dialogue About Food.   Me: You have this weird habit that I don’t understand. Me, too: Which one? I have a lot of weird habits. Me: You’ll be sitting there at your desk, concentrating on a paragraph or a page or on whatever it is that …Read More

Somewhere back in my years’ worth of blogs, I know I’ve written about Julia Cameron’s classic book on creativity, THE ARTIST’S WAY. It’s been a few years since I read the book and completed its intense series of exercises, but the habits I learned from it have stuck with me for the most part. One habit …Read More

      I spend a lot of time evaluating the relative value/usefulness of things. I want just the right tool at the proper time–but it shouldn’t be extravagant or wasteful. Comparison and criticism are nasty bedfellows. In the past I have silently judged infrequent cooks for buying $300 dutch ovens, when I know my …Read More

  I have one Instagram account and I’ve been thinking about making another one just for photographs of the 12 acres on which we live. There is so much richness in even just a single acre—in even a few square feet—that it would be cheating, because even if I tried, I would never be able to take …Read More

  I have friends who worry about Halloween, and I take their concerns seriously. If one has a strong sense that there is evil in the world, one usually wants to stay as far away from it–and to keep one’s children as far away from it–as one can. But the Halloween I see when I look …Read More

  What? Aren’t you already a professional? you might say, if we were sitting down for a cup of tea together. Haven’t you been publishing for more than two decades? When I think about how long I’ve been writing and publishing, I feel slightly embarrassed about how little I’ve actually published. I’ve written six novels (but published only …Read More

  It’s no secret that I have organizational issues. ADD/ADHD is a real thing and I struggle with it every day. My memory is pretty terrible, and I can’t prioritize my way out of a wet paper bag. It’s also an amazing gift. But some gifts are hard to live with. “Why don’t you just …Read More

One recent Monday–Garbage Night to be exact–my husband, Pinckney, heard mewing near our front gate. We were immediately concerned because our daughter mentioned she’d seen a dead cat out on the road earlier in the day. The mewing gave us visions of some pitiful, half-alive creature abandoned and dying on the asphalt. Usually we only find beer …Read More

      The thing about writing stories and publishing is that they’re both very much like that old Lay’s potato chip slogan: You can’t eat just one. (No, please don’t eat books–no matter how much you love them.) So many people I’ve met who say they want to write, or want to be a writer, claim …Read More

There’s this thing that I do, and I’m wondering if you do it too. A little story: (You knew there was a story coming, I bet.) I was sitting on the couch watching television with my Sweet Husband, and I started thinking about cookies. Not just any cookies, but specifically the two dozen homemade chocolate …Read More