The Obvious

Roses are red*, yes, and though I do love the deep, dark color red, truth is, I do not at all like red roses. If a certain someone came to me on certain holidays with a certain number of long-stemmed, thorny red roses wrapped in plastic, I would feel…
Probably a little let down.
Red roses are [...]

Purple Belt

E got his purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu today! I’m especially partial to the color purple, but that’s not the only reason I’m happy for him. It’s a step forward, and he, just like me, was seeking a step forward. It’s a reward truly deserved. It’s awesome. It’s symbolic; I feel it.
Congratulations, my other half! [...]

Interconnected Fears

That no one will notice me.
That someone will notice me.
That the loft bed will collapse while I am sleeping in it.
That the ceiling will cave in and rats will fall out on my head. (Not entirely impossible: An old friend who spent a summer dancing at a club in New Orleans said rats used to [...]

Must Be Good

I must be very, very good this weekend. I have an enormous amount of freelance work to do, so it’s not a weekend at all—more like a whole other work week entirely. Outside is the world, but I am not allowed outside. I must fight the urge to take a nap underneath my desk [...]

Dream Storm

In the dream, the rain crashed down, hitting the windows head on, rattling the glass. The force of the rain threatened to fling the air conditioner four floors down to the ground. I felt soaked, but my skin was dry. There were trees in the dream, trees I don’t see in real life, and they [...]

After the MFA (and Counting)

Someone I know is about to graduate her MFA program (poetry) next month. I told her congratulations, expecting her to be excited. But she’s not looking forward to graduating. She told me she’s afraid that—without the deadlines that come with being in a program—she won’t be motivated to write anymore.
This conversation occurred at work, at [...]

Slow Motion

As you may know, I have slowly been writing. Slowly, as if I have all the time in the world. What I would change about myself—one thing of many—is my obsession with time passing and how much older I am getting. I truly wish I did not care. Truth is, I do care. It pains [...]

Breakfast at Tiffany’s Revisited

I am reading Breakfast at Tiffany’s for the second time. (Apparently, it is considered a “short novel,” so it could not have made my list.) I am trying to figure out why it struck me so, the first time. Was it the voice? Yes. Was it the mysterious, unknowable character of Holly Golightly? Oh yes.
I [...]

10 Favorite Short Stories

[EDIT: Now 11!]
Inspired by LK’s list of her ten favorite short stories, I’ve sought out ten of my current favorites. I say “current” because I know I’m forgetting some real doozies; I just can’t find them now to recall what they were. The list is in alphabetical order, because I can’t seem to play favorites [...]

Confessions of a Self-Saboteur

I am a master of self-sabotage, so skilled in taking myself down I can do it with a single blow. I’m deadly—just only to myself.
My own personal internal refrain is that I’m just not working hard enough. I am fully aware of this, and yet it keeps coming up as if this is something far [...]

Puzzle

I’m at a puzzling spot in this novel I’m working on. It is a novel I’ve written before, just not adequately. It is a novel I’m revisiting, redrafting, reimagining. It is being retold, though many pages of it exist. The new opening is one of those things that Changes Everything. Now, with Everything Changed, I [...]

Precious Mornings

This morning my alarm didn’t go off. Faintly, in the fuzzy distance, I began to wonder what time it might be. I was sure it was past six. It took me some minutes to force myself to a sitting position so I could catch sight of the alarm clock. Sure enough, it was past the [...]

An Aside About Work

Yesterday at work, the person I hired and supervise gave notice. It is not a shock, as we have a close relationship and talk about everything, but I guess the real shock is realizing she will soon be gone, and I will not have this amazing person to work with anymore. Even though I was [...]

Twisted

I was brushing my hair this morning, bent over a little, came up, and had twisted my back. Or is it my shoulder? I’m not exactly sure how that happened, the logic in there, the physical motions of what occurred. Either way, the pain is distracting me from writing at the moment. I’m also thinking [...]

What’s Happened

I don’t know how to explain what’s changed; I’m not even sure I should admit to it. All I can say, because I am superstitious with detail, is that I am writing again. Writing-writing. There is a novel that has a hold of me—that’s all I’ll say in terms of specifics. I’ll talk more about [...]

The #1 Reason I Became a Writer

Hands down: Books! How could I have forgotten?
In the past week or so, I’ve recommenced my love affair with books. I’ve been so jumbled up in my own head about what I have or haven’t been writing that I, inconceivably, let go of how much I love reading. It began, in spurts, with the short [...]

Caught in the Rain

The downfall of rain is soothing to me this morning. It’s the sound, the mist in the air, the patter on my umbrella as I cut my way through it. Calming.
Yesterday—amid no rain—I found myself having to give advice to someone I love, but nothing I could say was the right thing, and I knew [...]

Thinking Blogger Awards

You wouldn’t believe it, but I’ve been given a Thinking Blogger Award four separate times—by Elizabeth of Fluent; by Courtney of The Public, the Private and Everything in Between; by Mel of The Mel Mystique; and by Jade of Writing Under a Pseudonym. Crazy. Also, Charlotte at Charlotte’s Web listed me as a blogger who [...]

Start Small

You and I know that I’ve been thinking over (dwelling on?) the implications of giving up my dream to be a Writer, and I came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t be so bad, that it might in fact be freeing…
BUT I am not about to give up. Not anytime soon.
I am nothing if not [...]

No More Frank?

I may have mentioned, in passing, the old woman in an adjacent apartment building who, for the past four years or more, yells into the airshaft for Frank. I may also have mentioned that I do not believe in Frank. There is no Frank. It’s not like I ever heard him answer!
I did not believe [...]