Why I Wrote a Novel About a Weird Apple: Part 3
During these last few weeks, I shared two posts about the origins of my novel Harvesting the Sky. The first article covered how I merged issues of an emotional past with plants and the second, my inability to eat apples and…
Why I Wrote a Novel About a Weird Apple: Part 2
Last week, I wrote about the origins of my novel Harvesting the Sky. How my own emotional journey found its way into my protagonist, how I developed a protagonist who was a composite of plant people I knew, and why I decided to set…
Might and Main Monday: Ann Patchett
Writer Ann Patchett says it all in this quote about the creation of art and the importance of forgiveness. It’s from her article, “The Getaway Car,” reprinted in This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage. Forgiveness. The ability to forgive…
Why I Wrote a Novel About a Weird Apple: Part 1
For years I resisted the idea of writing fictional stories about plants. I had a day job, which entailed helping people design and maintain their gardens, and I had a night vocation, which was writing stories about careers I might…
Being Honest About What My Writing Actually Is
This weekend I did something strange and bold. In fact, I’m still vibrating about its aftereffects. I can’t quite wrap my mind around what I did. Somehow it feels wrong but then again, it feels pure and more right than…
7 Things I Learned From Doing NaNoWriMo
A couple of years ago, I decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). With focused vigor, I dove into writing a 50,000-word story. It was an intense, frustrating, and ultimately, rewarding journey. I got to swim in…
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 You Be a Writer and Have Kids?
During this last spring break, I took my three children to visit my mother and aunt in Tucson, Arizona. It was a bright, loud, active, social time. We yakked on about everything from politics to the names of my daughter’s…
