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Updated on September 25, 2018October 28, 2017Leave a CommentBooks

Fiction: Hello Loved Ones

It’s 1968 in Holland, Michigan, and Sally Van Sloeten wants to know why her father doesn’t love her. Her mother, sister, and brother call her dad a deadbeat and never want to see him again, but Sally vows to find him in time for a Father/Daughter banquet, even if it means running away with a gas station attendant named Cash. She doesn’t care that her brother Lenny was arrested for breaking Cash’s nose. She won’t let Lenny’s explosive temper stand in her way, and she’s too preoccupied to wonder what has him so angry. All she knows is that she has to be like the other girls, whether it’s at the banquet or in the front seat of Cash’s car. But as Sally realizes her dream, her mother reveals a painful secret that sends her spinning out of control.

Updated on November 2, 2017October 27, 20171 CommentBlog

Something’s Gotta Give

A couple of months ago I skipped writing a blog because I was writing a script for a client about how important blogging is. It was one of life’s many ironies.

Then, more recently, I paused my weekly blog for a month to allow space to finish my manuscript, sign my publishing contract, and just breathe.

During this time, I watched one of my favorite movies, Something’s Gotta Give. There are so many things I love about this movie: Diane Keaton’s portrayal of a writer, the way her writing desk overlooks the ocean, the way she cries and laughs out loud as she writes.

Updated on October 24, 2017October 23, 20171 CommentBlog

Have a Question? Ask Your Children.

Last night I was attempting to explain to my 10-year-old daughter that anxiety can come from believing something that’s not true.

“Our brains don’t know the difference between what’s real and what’s not real,” I said. I was about to launch into a sure-to-be-cumbersome definition of perception and reality, when she said:

“Right, because the mind and the brain are two separate things. The brain is physical and the mind is spiritual. If your mind thinks that something is real, then your brain and your body will act according to what you think.”

Whoa. I just got schooled.

Updated on October 18, 2017October 18, 2017Leave a CommentBlog

What The Heck is a Change Reaction?

It all begins with some stinky, stained carpet.

After years of living with an elderly dog and then a puppy, the carpet in my small sunroom is trashed. This is the room where I write, and the smell is distracting. (For the record, nearly anything has the power to distract me from writing, but still…) Something has to be done.

So I go to Home Depot to price carpet, then come home and start dragging furniture out of my daughter’s room. That makes sense, right?

Updated on November 2, 2017October 9, 20171 CommentBlog

3 Ways to Let Your Intuition Take the Lead

So my new hobby is social dancing. I had been to several open dance nights when I decided it was time to step it up, so to speak, and take some lessons. I couldn’t decide between West Coast Swing, East Coast Swing, Country Two-Step, or Hustle, and the registration deadline was fast approaching. Then, as I was talking to a friend, he began telling a story about life lessons he had learned in his 20s.

“I had to learn to hustle,” he said.

October 4, 2017October 4, 2017Leave a CommentBlog

7 Tips for Writing a Killer College Essay

I can honestly say that I’ve never been a helicopter mom. I’ve never stayed up later than my kid to put a few “finishing touches” on her science project. I don’t schedule meetings with teachers or principals or send carefully worded “concerned” texts to mothers of my kids’ friends. I don’t have tracking devices on their phones.

For years I’ve been cool. I’ve been laid back. Except when one of my kids puts a piece of writing in front of me. Before I know what I’m doing, I’m reaching for a red pen. The itch to edit or tease something sublime from each sentence is simply too great to resist. I MUST put my mark on it.

October 2, 2017September 3, 2017Leave a CommentBlog

7 Secrets to Being a Loved One

The title of my first book, ‘Hello Loved Ones,’ comes from an “endearment “ used casually by the father of the narrator when he comes home drunk after long unexplained absences. He tosses these words at his children, who are starved for his attention, before leaving them. The novel looks at the importance of love in action and questions whether love is determined by blood or by choice.

September 25, 2017September 3, 2017Leave a CommentBlog

The Yarn That Dreamed of Becoming a Pussy Hat

My suitcase was open on the bed, half full. My best friend was in the room with me, telling me to stop packing. I wanted her to shut up. I was becoming angry, and it was that particular anger that comes when someone tells you something you already know.

We were both juniors at Indiana University and I was soon to catch a flight for London to do a semester abroad. It was my dream, I’d lined up a program, and I had the student loan to pay for it.

September 18, 2017September 3, 2017Leave a CommentBlog

The Most Important 18 Inches You’ll Ever Travel

British author David Mitchell says, “Travel far enough, you meet yourself.” These words came to me as I was about to embark on a dream vacation to Paris, the city of light and love, with some of my favorite people in the world: my daughter and two dear family friends.

While I was excited to share the adventure with them, I knew the beauty of the trip would be in the various and unique ways we each find enchantment. Of course I wanted to pose in front of the Eiffel Tower and float along the Seine, but more than that, I wanted to discover: How would my heart be changed?

Updated on September 13, 2017September 11, 2017Leave a CommentBlog

10 Indispensable Writing Tips From Famous Authors

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
–Ernest Hemingway

“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
–E.L. Doctorow

And more….!

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