My mother believed in lotion. All kinds of lotion. Foot lotion, hand lotion, body lotion, elbow lotion, face lotion. Lotion for scrubbing away callouses, hiding wrinkles, minimizing dark circles, keeping out UV rays, softening skin, fading age spots. Pink, white, green, yellow, grainy, smooth, thick, thin, scented, lightly scented, unscented, whipped, churned, glopped, dotted. For my mother,Continue reading “Mama Said There’d Be Days Like This”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Come on and Rescue Me
PULSE. People United to Save Everything? PULSE People Undergoing Lots of Special Experiences? PULSE People Undertaking Lewd Sexual Endeavors? Last Saturday I went to a reunion of college friends involved in a program called PULSE. Some of us hadn’t seen each other in 30 years (please don’t do the math). Greeting each person held aContinue reading “Come on and Rescue Me”
Toil and Trouble
The message is loud and clear these days. No pain no gain. Just do it. Do what you love the money will come. Feel the fear and do it anyway. Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. 80% of life is showing up. Stay in the room. Do the work. Write your heart out. Ignore theContinue reading “Toil and Trouble”
Streets of Philadelphia
My mother used to say, What you don’t know would fill a book. I think later she expanded that to a library. Perhaps this was some foreshadowing of my life as a writer. Certainly I feel I am filling books with things I don’t know. Things I just make up or half make up. At the veryContinue reading “Streets of Philadelphia”
Wish You Would Step Back From That Ledge My Friend
It dawned on me the other day that I have started two novels and in both of them there is a character who commits suicide. They are very different characters and they kill themselves for very different reasons, but nonetheless they both off themselves. I wonder if I have some creepy obsession with suicide? I decidedContinue reading “Wish You Would Step Back From That Ledge My Friend”
You’ve Come a Long Way, Maybe
It’s not easy to be a feminist these days. When you try to have a serious conversation about it people think you are a crank or stick-in-the-mud or a prude. The word itself is becoming obsolete and you certainly don’t hear it associated with women anymore, like Michelle Obama, feminist and president’s wife. Or EllenContinue reading “You’ve Come a Long Way, Maybe”
You Eat What You Are
I hate that buying groceries is stressful. Where exactly did these avocados come from? Should I pay $2 more for organic lemons? Why is there BHT in every box of cereal and what the hell is it, really? If there are 27 unpronounceable ingredients in this frozen veggie sausage can it be good for me?Continue reading “You Eat What You Are”
Cheap Tricks
I bought a book called Making Time to Write, but I didn’t have time to read it. I bought another book called Write! 10 Days to Overcome Writer’s Block. Period. I thought that would be the one. It has lists for you to fill in, first using your right hand then using your left hand. You areContinue reading “Cheap Tricks”
Almost Famous
Last night I had a dream about Michael Cunningham. He was giving a writing workshop in some small, gloomy city and I wanted desperately to be part of it, to see if he remembered me from the P-town workshop I took with him 11 years ago, to impress him with my extraordinary writing and myContinue reading “Almost Famous”
Write Dirty to Me
There are three types of people in this world. One type gets the check at the end of their meal, pulls out a charge card and then when the wait-staff returns with the receipt to be signed, they dutifully add a tip to the bill, sign it and leave. The second type might go through these motions,Continue reading “Write Dirty to Me”
In the Chair 