I’ve been thinking about love lately and what this word means and how we use it and why we say it and need it and misunderstand it and crave it and write songs and poems about it. I wrote a short piece about these three words, I love you, a few years ago for a book [...]
I am in a writing state of mind this month, so I thought I’d share some quotes from writers. Even if you don’t write, they make sense for whatever your passion is, don’t you think? “In writing, you must kill all your darlings.” ― William Faulkner “A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, [...]
I will soon turn over my baby to a stranger. I’m talking about my manuscript, this manuscript: Killing Sacred in Current Manuscript Form. The one for my next mystery, Killing Sacred. The one I’ve been writing between the doings in my busy life for a few years now. The one I’ve not made a [...]
What would I do if I couldn’t write? Read. What would I do if I couldn’t read? Have someone read to me. What would I do if I couldn’t hear? Learn to read with my fingers. What would I do if I couldn’t feel? Take a walk and smell the [...]
As I reinvent myself one more time, and at last begin to fulfill my lifelong passion to write fiction, I must finally learn how to practice the “cultivation of leisure.” This phrase: “cultivation of leisure,” which I know I got right, has lived in my right brain since I heard it probably 20 years ago—but [...]
I write volumes in my head while riding my bicycle. Recently, while on vacation in Vermont, I averaged about 25 miles a day. By the end of 7 days I had written a best-selling novel and a few blog posts—all in my head. If only I had a wire attached to my brain to record [...]
How I wish Goodreads had been around back in March 1994 when my book group read and discussed our first book over dinner. I might have a more extensive account of the 80 books we’ve read so far, and the countless books I’ve read on my own. Or not. We were all six working at [...]
My 90-in-90—days of writing in that many days—is already 5 days old. I’ve established a routine: so far so good. Soyen Shaku’s heart burned for his daily meditation practice, as mine does for my daily writing practice. Like him: ‘Upon awakening, I leave my bed behind me instantly as if I had cast away a [...]
I’ve published my first novel—hooray for me! And I’m halfway through writing the second one. Again, hooray for me! It only took six published non-fiction books and too many years to assign an actual number to—who’s to know when I had my first inkling that I wanted to be a writer?—to finally settle into writing [...]
Sort of. Not really. If it were, I’d be doing more of it. But, there’s always something else to do. Yesterday, someone said that writing gets harder the longer you do it. I think he might be right. I keep thinking that if I did it more, every day, were more disciplined about it (at [...]
