They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. But I’m starting to think what makes me stronger is going to kill me anyway, just for giggles. So here it is, this week’s list of things I can’t live without as a writer, but which I’m certain are going to shorten my lifespan by years. […]
inspiration
Wanderlust Looks Out on a Cold Morning
As I write this, it’s a balmy 2 degrees Fahrenheit here on the eastern plains of Colorado. (That’s –17 Celsius, for those of us who can’t do the conversion in our heads.) As someone whose fingers turn to ice when it dips below 72, I’m not in what I’d call my “happy place” right now. […]
Gain a Literary Agent, Celebrate a Pivotal Moment
Some life changes drift past you so slowly, you don’t recognize them as they’re happening. It may take years before you can look back and say, “Oh, that’s where things started to change for me.” Other life changes stand up, grab you by the shoulders, and give you a shake. “Here. Now. This,” they say, […]
Welcoming the Light Once Again
We look to the light, this time of year. We feel the shortness of the days, the darkness of the cold nights, the bite of the winter wind. We know to our ancestral bones that the sun is reluctant to spend much time gazing on us in December. We huddle inside, where it’s warmer, we […]
Songwriting Sparks at the Bluebird Café
The Bluebird Café in Nashville has a storied past, as die-hard country music fans will tell you. Not being one of those, I hadn’t heard of it before this past weekend. Shame on me. The Bluebird Café is a tiny little “listening room” tucked into an unassuming strip mall, far from the noise and neon […]
Burnt Offerings – Hiking through a Wildfire-Ravaged Forest
Here I am, hiking through a burned forest. It’s been less than a year since the East Troublesome Fire tore through 193,812 acres of Colorado mountain forest, destroying 580 structures, 366 of which were homes. With 80-mile-per-hour winds, that fire ripped through miles-long swaths of Rocky Mountain National Park, roiled down mountainsides to the very […]
