One Year Later...
It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since the original Muses welcomed us newbies with open arms. So much has happened since my firs...
Current Project: Writing for Storybird
Have you heard of Storybird ? It's a creative community and publishing platform based around visual storytelling. Anyone can selec...
Happily Ever Afters
Katherine's post yesterday got me thinking about my own views about the Happily Ever After and whether it's a necessary component o...
Eyes on Your Own Eyes
If you follow me on Instagram , then you know that I'm in the middle of a 7-day Bikram yoga challenge (and maybe longer, but baby s...
Writing: The Grand Obsession
It wouldn't matter what I did to pay the bills, I would still have to say, "I'm a writer" if asked at a cocktail party. ...
My Writing Job
Like many writers out there, I always knew this was my dream profession. And I’ve worked my whole life to build a writing career … and,...
Why Don't You Get a Job?
I used to think that I had to publish a novel in order to think of my writing as a "job." Job = Income, right? But since I quit ...
Till Human Voices Wake Us*
The voices I hear while drafting a new project are often quite pleasant. It's as if I'm underwater, floating in a dream world, sur...
GUEST POST--author Corrine Jackson on "Fandom"
Today I get to introduce an author today of whom I've been a huge fan for the past three years--ever since I read an early c...
Language Lessons
After years of talking about it, I finally bit the bullet and purchased Rosetta Stone around the New Year. I have a minor in Spanish (ea...
My Goals, My MC's Goals, and My Bad Guy's Goals
Can you smell that? Yes, it's only the 8th and already the scent of broken resolutions is heavy in the air. Okay, okay, sorry. That...
O.O.M.M. – A New Year’s Resolution
Happy New Year, Everyone! 2014 is here, a blank slate that begs to be filled with promises and solutions and success. Or so the popul...
The Gift of Belief
[I posted an earlier version of this to my personal blog two years ago. I really like the goats in the picture, so I wanted to post it again...
The Waiting Is the Hardest Part
Today is Monday, the 23 rd of December and this evening at 5 pm, my step-daughter Alexis is getting married. This much-anticipated ...
I’ve been working on a story idea recently—one in which the
characters will spend a good part of the novel hungry, unsheltered,
wandering—lost. It’s difficult to get
into the mindset of someone who has so little when I have so much.
I’ve been a wanderer, but one of the fortunate ones. My homelessness was voluntary during the nine
months I traveled the world with nothing but the contents of my backpack. During that time, there were a few nights I
didn’t have a place to stay and had to sleep where I could (including one night
on the floor of the women’s bathroom of the Chimanimani National Park in
Zimbabwe, a shelter for which I was incredibly grateful).
I’ve been in the situation where I didn’t have enough in my
bank account to make a withdrawal from an ATM machine—but at the time I worked
at a bakery, so I always had enough to eat.
I’ve been unemployed, but had shelter through the kindness
of family. I’ve been hungry, but only
because I’ve forgotten to eat or because a meal was delayed or—once—neglected
to bring enough food on a 15-hour train journey. I’ve never had a Christmas without friends,
family, food and at least one gift. Last
year, with nine people in the house, the cornucopia beneath the tree was an
embarrassment of riches.
This morning, we have no milk in the house. Even buying two gallons at a time, we run out
quickly with two growing boys. At first,
I pouted. I love to make myself a
cappuccino in the morning. Plain coffee
just isn’t the same. There’s something
about the ritual of foaming the milk, the lick of foam on the side of the mug,
being able to dip my holiday biscotti into the creamy center.
But then I sat down to write about these characters. They’re not hungry yet, but they’re about to
be. And I was reminded that I have coffee. I have homemade biscotti. I have the means to go out and buy milk and a
car to transport the two gallons home. I
have heat and a comfortable bed and the ability to give my kids something on their wish lists for Christmas.
Last week, my son’s classroom asked for volunteers to help
sort donations for the Short Term Emergency Aid Committee in a neighboring
town. The agency gives food and gifts to
local families who might be barely scraping buy this month. My kid spent all weekend raking leaves,
cleaning out the gutters, mowing the lawn, vacuuming and washing dishes so he
could give an extra ten dollars to help out.
Someone asked me why he didn’t keep some of it, and I answered that I
think it’s because he knows he has enough, and there are people out there who
don’t.
That’s the best gift I’ve received so far this holiday
season. Just seeing that generosity of
spirit in someone I love. And knowing
that if my characters were real people, there might be someone out there
willing to help them, without hesitation or judgment.
While writing
a novel, we’re told to raise the stakes.
Make things worse for our characters—and then make them worse again.
This holiday season, in real life, I am humbled by watching
my child make things better.
And I’m determined to do the same. So I pledge to donate a dollar to go to local
families in need for every individual who comments below*. And I’ll donate two dollars if you pledge to
give back to your community, too. Just tell me who you are (so I know you're not a bot!) and your favorite holiday giving tradition--to family, to friends, to Secret Santas, to the community...
Happy holidays, my friends.
And thank you for making it happier for others, too.
*I will donate to the Short
Term Emergency Aid Committee, http://www.steac.org/, counting individual readers who comment up to and including
Christmas Day.
***UPDATE***
***UPDATE***
This post got eight comments, so I've rounded up my donation to STEAC (Short-Term Emergency Aid Committee) in Yolo County to $20. Thank you all so much, and I hope you had a joyous season.
'Tis the Season...
I’ve been working on a story idea recently—one in which the characters will spend a good part of the novel hungry, unsheltered, ...
