September 11, 2009 – 12:01 am
A lot of you asked me to pass along what I learned at the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, so I’ll try to boil it down to the information I’ve used the most since I got home.
First, let me briefly describe what happens at Squaw, for those who aren’t familiar with it. For one [...]
August 7, 2009 – 12:01 am
This month, we talked about the instruments we played when we were kids. Mostly I played imaginary instruments, playing as fast and impressively as the masters. In real life, I was impatient with the learning curve, but I do have a story for you about me and the piano.
The high point of my piano playing [...]
We talked about heroes this month, and every time I think of the word “hero,” I get that Mariah Carey song stuck in my head.
I heard that song constantly when I worked as a counselor at a rape crisis center because one of my teenage clients loved to sing to me. She liked over-the-top songs: [...]
I have the kind of voice that’s meant to whisper. Good for libraries and pillow talk. When I answer the phone, the first thing people tend to say is, Did I wake you up? They didn’t; I don’t even like to sleep. I just have one of those voices. It’s my father’s voice. The sound [...]
If you haven’t seen very much of me in the last two months, it’s because I’m right about here in the new book:
Just after Thanksgiving, I took out a blank piece of paper and started to think about the things I love and the things I fear and the questions I’ve always wanted answers to; [...]
I was thinking about the years my kids were still into wearing costumes – no holiday required – and we’d head to the bookstore: me, Superman with a dishtowel for a cape, and his sidekick in a knight’s helmet, shorts, rubber boots and a whistle necklace which he was not to blow in the store.
My [...]
February 6, 2009 – 12:01 am
Do you remember, when you were a kid, what it was like to walk through the cafeteria with your lunch tray or walk down the aisle of the bus, and kids are putting coats and backpacks across the empty seats so you can’t sit down? Remember that feeling?
Or, say, you’re walking down the hallway at [...]
January 9, 2009 – 12:01 am
Years ago, when I left my job as a rape crisis counselor, I was presented with a plaque. In beautiful calligraphy, my co-workers had listed the qualities they valued most about me: Dedicated Somethingerother. Compassionate Listener. Some Other Things. Patient.
I showed the plaque to Mr. Henderson, and he asked, “Do you think they meant this [...]
November 7, 2008 – 12:01 am
Before I get to the monthly wrap, I just want to acknowledge this historic election. I haven’t felt so emotional and deeply grateful since my kids were born healthy. (With maybe the one exception of when one of my boys got me a Madeline tea set for my birthday so we could have tea parties [...]
October 31, 2008 – 12:01 am
I just want want to say how much I loved hearing the stories of your most pathetic Halloweens: the man who answered your request for candy by giving you dead chickens, the yellow body paint that wouldn’t come off, the parents who had you passing out evangelical pamphlets, the small children you terrified in your [...]
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