Here's what I know about writing fiction: it's harder than you might think. Last summer when I hit a dry spell working on the memoir/essay/cookbook project I started, I decided maybe I'd take the hint offered by a writer friend and try my hand at fiction. What she'd actually said over lunch, journalist speaking to … Continue reading Southern storyteller syndrome
So here's something you might have noticed: the characters in those delicious coming-of-age stories, the one that are always all the rage? They're never a day past 25 (if that). The over-30-and-40-something people? They've already come of age. They're full-grown, and their angst-of-now stories are called mid-life crises. Our stories, I mean, not theirs. Mine, … Continue reading Riding through the crazies.
I used to think it was just me. (I know, poor grammar. Blah, blah.) Anyway, I used to think I was the only one, the sole outlier who, even when given ample time to write a speech, etc., would do absolutely anything to avoid getting started. Surely I was the only one stupid enough to … Continue reading Please, box me in.
These are things I dislike: Pork rinds Rigid ideology The smell of fish sauce Waking up early Rachel Ray cookbooks Donna Tartt novels It isn't a comprehensive list, just a few current, top-of-mind thoughts. I include them here in case you're thinking of leaving, in case one of your New Year's resolutions is to declutter … Continue reading Field particles.
Whether or not you're the resolution-making sort of person, it's possible that somewhere in your mind is the idea that 2015 will be the year you get a grip on cooking dinner. Family dinner was my pledge to myself (not a resolution but a decision born of necessity, I assure you) in January 2013 when … Continue reading Want to start cooking? Start cooking!
I have never been particularly good about making resolutions, and even less good about keeping them. In my 20s if I made a resolution at all it was something like "this is the year I'll figure out what I want to be when I grow up," a resolution that never worked out the way I … Continue reading Goodnight, gorilla.
Because it will never get old for me, and because maybe you'll feel the same way, and because my daughter is exiting the Santa years, and because - this most of all - we could all always use a bit of love and magic, today I offer a repeat posting of Martha Brockenbrough's great letter … Continue reading Finding Santa.
This time last year, on a particularly stressful day, I challenged myself to a 30 minute free write. My task was to list, in no particular order, as many good things from 2013 as I could remember. Before I got to 10 I was feeling better and building momentum. By the end I was at … Continue reading 50 (ish) happy things from 2014.
