Ross Gay: Singing About Plants and People
September is a month of transition. The warm, bright freedom of long days wanes into the chilly introspection of rainy nights. It’s a warning about the coming of the great sleep that is winter. It’s in the morning dew on cars and yellow leaves that swirl before us as we…
Playing the Writing Life Like a Game of UNO
What I love about the game UNO is just when you think you’ve lost, the momentum changes and things start to look up. The same could be said of the writing life. Just when you’re about to give up, you can’t because you never know what’s about to happen. Take…
Worrying About Tracy Chevalier When I Don’t Need to
Tracy Chevalier has published a book about apple trees and I’m jealous. I saw it a few weeks ago in my local, independent bookstore, Third Place Books. (I know I’m a bit late in noticing.) Multiple copies were nested in a large endcap display, sporting images of red apples, in…
My Struggle with Social and Solitary Time
Recently, I made a shift in how I view my time. Like all writers, I crave long blocks of uninterrupted time. Whether I acquired that was always on me. Was I answering email instead of writing my novel? Was I running errands when I should be home revising a short…
How My Work as an Editor Gave Me Insight into Querying Literary Agents
Before I became a professional gardener, I worked as an editor. These were good and not-so-good years in my life because though I worked with words, I wasn’t writing enough of my own. For awhile, I worked at a large internet retailer I won’t name. Let’s just say, they sold everything…
Why I Welcome Feedback From Agents
I’ve been searching for representation for about a month now. Recently, one agent requested my full manuscript but passed on it. In her comments she mentioned the first chapters were slower than she preferred for the books on her list. (She represented grittier, faster paced novels than mine.) And she…
Why I Set my Stories in Paris
Though I was born in Chicago and have spent most of my adulthood in Seattle, I’ve always felt more European than American. There’s nothing really wrong with America, it is the land of hopes and dreams and opportunity. America’s resourcefulness and belief in a better tomorrow is ingrained in me.…
