“I’ll never be as good as some of the authors I’m reading” is a common lament I hear when I attend writing workshops. Reading the best of the best can be intimidating. But also inspiring. And challenging. I have always had a problem with fresh, new sounding descriptions of everyday things. Like describing the sky; …
Morbid, right? In a sense, yes. In another, no. Around twelve years ago, my four older siblings and their spouses started planning for their funerals by buying cemetery plots. I followed their actions via our email chats. Since I’m five to eleven years younger, I saw no need to start planning. Now, unbelievably, six of …
The title of the article “Writing In Between Worlds,” a suggested reading for my recent Write-by-the-Lake Writer’s Workshop and Retreat, intrigued me as a recent transplant from Chicago to Sioux Falls, from a city of nearly three million to one of 175,000. My body is here, but my heart is still in transit. We did …
Continue reading Write Along with Me #3: Writing In Between Worlds
Run on over tomorrow morning to Reach a Reader Bookstore in Sioux Falls for their July sale. Located at 101 N. Minnesota Ave (on the lower level of Canfield Interiors), this inspiring bookstore supports adult literacy programs (and appreciates their many volunteers). I am happy to have the opportunity to be there also for a …
Continue reading Caring Lessons Book Signing – July 22, 2017, 9-12 noon
When I read that a suggested reading for my recent Write-by-the-Lake workshop with Amy Lou Jenkins was Miller and Paola’s Tell it Slant, I immediately got gut pain. Some years ago, during a writing workshop, the teacher had shown a page of an essay I’d written on a screen and asked the group of about …
The fun is yet to be! Come with me, in spirit, to the Write-by-the-Lake Writer's Workshop & Retreat at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I’m getting ready to attend this retreat next week. And oh, what fun it is to prepare. I want to remind you, as I’ve done before, that your words will …
With gratitude for those who served, including my dad and my son, I post this in honor of Memorial Day. http://youtu.be/p5mmFPyDK_8
In honor of Nurses Week, I'd like to ask my readers to consider supporting our nurses of tomorrow! I helped start the BSN program at Trinity Christian College in 1983 and am happily helping their alumni group, TANA, to endow a nursing scholarship. If you are so inclined, all of us associated with Trinity would …
I should have known I was in trouble as I sat down in my grandson’s kindergarten room ready to serve as a room parent assistant for my daughter for whatever party this was. For starters, I don’t fit on kindergartner chairs. For another, I’d taught college-age students for a reason. For yet another, I’ve never …
I have her shoes, the new white Skechers she’d packed carefully in her “wear home from the hospital” bag. There’s something not right about this. We did not expect her death. We were ecstatic when we heard her surgery for cancer was successful. We were relieved when she transferred out of ICU, then greatly worried …
Write Along with Me 