That perfect first line. How we chase it, scrambling phrases and our brains, seeking magic words to pop open our stories like magic keys. ( Sometimes, I want to create an entire book when a great beginning sentence pops into my head.) “There’s one thing I’m sure about. An opening line should invite the reader … Read more
At first, writing seems the perfect job for a control freak. * You are alone! At your desk. Making your very own world. * These characters you’ve dreamed up jump when you say jump. Okay, perhaps they squirm away from your outline a bit. Or they do that thing—musing about the time in high school when they almost … Read more
Hoarding, hiding, and divorcing socks: such are my dryer’s hobbies. (He likely hustles clients for a textile-marriage counselor—or is, perhaps, an instrument of the devil.) The other possibility, though sad, is more likely: I’m a sloppy housekeeper. On ‘laundry ‘days’ (hah— as though I have the discipline to demarcate a wash day) when struck by … Read more
“I’m looking for possible blurbs to be published on the back or inside cover of my 90-year-old mother’s novel,” Michelle Hoover wrote on Facebook. “Her health is precarious, she’s isolated in a care facility in Iowa, and I want to do something that raises her spirits and makes true one of her dreams, or as … Read more
Answering questions off the cuff is my favorite way of presenting—surprising (embarrassing?) myself with on-my-feet answers as I stumble into learning things I didn’t know about myself. Thus, when author Anjali Mitter Duva asked me to participate in the Arlington Author Salon, I was thrilled—until I cringed, imagining filling fifteen minutes without seeing or interacting with … Read more