Did I mention I was hacked? Yup. Last month. I got two texts from a fake Meta business account at 3:43 AM telling me “We think that someone may have accessed your Facebook account, so we’ve locked it to protect you.” At the same time, I got several emails purportedly from Facebook saying “We’re here to help.” An hour later I got an email telling me “Your Facebook account has been permanently disabled.” All while I slept. I think the last one was, legit, from Meta, because my account has,...
2 days ago • 2 min read
Hi all, I did two ER visits with Mom in the last couple of days—one at 2:00 in the afternoon and the next at 2:00 in the morning. (She had nosebleeds that wouldn't stop.) Though it was frightening for her, she's okay now—back in her assisted living apartment, recovering and getting good care. I'm writing this to you while attempting to be coherent. A day retreat is sounding pretty good right now. The cabana where I live sits right on a small lake, and it's one of my favorite places in the...
25 days ago • 1 min read
Hello lovelies! First, to our locals: I am so looking forward to seeing you tonight. I hope you've got words to read at our open mic (don't be shy!) and are ready to celebrate with me the Twentieth Anniversary Release of Considering Flight. I want to tell you a little about our venue. Artisans is really two shops in one. Mother-daughter team Judi and Mary Kate Ramsey set out to create a welcoming gathering place that celebrates local authors, artisans and musicians. The book selection has...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hello dear writer-readers, Tonight I have the honor of reading alongside the award-winning poet Judith Skillman at the release of her new book Oppression. " In these poems, Skillman confronts oppression in its many forms—public and intimate, inherited and lived—through mythic reframing, family history, and vivid sensory attention." (From the description) I'll be joined by poets David Horowitz, founder of Rose Alley Press, Michael Spence, winner of the New Criterion Poetry Prize, and Pushcart...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Tomorrow we'll give our final count to the kitchen and close registration for this year's Full-Bodied Writing Retreat. As I've been looking through photos from past years, I've been reminded that the retreat isn't really about workshops or schedules. It's about writers finding room to breathe. It's about conversations on the deck, walks among the trees, unexpected breakthroughs on the page, and the relief of spending a weekend with people who understand why stories matter. If that...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Some of the most powerful moments in stories happen on thresholds. A character stands between one life and another. Between certainty and uncertainty. Between who they have been and who they are becoming. Anthropologists call these spaces liminal. Writers often recognize them instinctively. Tonight at 7:00 Pacific, award-winning author Joni Sensel will offer a free webinar exploring how "in-betweenness" can become a powerful tool in your writing—particularly in the way you think...
2 months ago • 1 min read
“Writing is always full of self-doubt, but [my] first book is really full of self-doubt, and it was much more of a struggle to keep the faith. By the time I wrote Wild, I was familiar with that feeling of doubt and self-loathing, so I just thought, ‘Okay, this is how it feels to write a book.’”—Cheryl Strayed Given: Most writers feel like imposters at some point—or all the time. Maybe the question is not how to overcome fraud syndrome, but how to dance with it--to give that clumsy partner its...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader,Yesterday the faculty met to finalize the Full-Bodied Writing Retreat, and I left more excited than ever. We aren't going to talk about setting as background scenery. We're going to step into it physically. We're going to build it, inhabit it, film it, and write from inside it. Because when you actually step into your setting, it changes your writing. Place stops being description and becomes experience. Your work becomes a world readers can enter and inhabit alongside your...
2 months ago • 1 min read
So I've continued to think and write and talk to others about this Thing that takes over our brains and keeps us from writing—or keeps us in a state of dread while we do. It stinks. And it's not fair. Except that it seems to be an equal-opportunity Thing, attacking beginners and professionals alike. Next Monday, June 8, we're going to explore what to do about it. Here are a few things I've figured out: Writers are particularly susceptible to fraud syndrome because sharing our work involves...
2 months ago • 1 min read