TELLING A STORY CAN HELP YOU WRITE A STORY A few years ago, I found myself in the middle of a writing slump. All the short stories I sent out came back with a five-word rejection: Not Right For Our List. For a writer, those five words have the same effect as someone saying: “Are […]
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ROBBED! Photo Courtesy of Manish Das 0:00 / 0:00 Robbed! Years ago, a thief broke into my house and ransacked it. However, when I arrived home, it took a full ten minutes for me to recognize we’d been robbed. Why? To be honest, our little abode normally resembled the town dump. That is to say,
THE FOXGANG PUCK INCIDENT Photo Courtesy of Patrick Hendry 0:00 / 0:00 Foxgang Puck One winter evening a couple of years ago, I was arguing on the phone with my oldest son while I was trying to throw together dinner for a small crowd. I don’t remember the subject of the argument, I just remember
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PERFORMANCE ANXIETY The phrase performance anxiety has a special meaning for my husband and me. For us, the term refers to the cold sweat that covers us whenever our middle son takes to the stage or playing field. We don’t worry whether he’ll shine in the spotlight or excel in a game. Rather, we just
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LIVING IN DOUBLE WIDES Photo Courtesy of Thomas Griesbeck 0:00 / 0:00 Living in Double Wides I rarely buy shoes. If they feel comfortable, I’ll wear a pair as long as I can. Twenty-eight years ago, on the first day of our honeymoon, my husband and I used wedding money to purchase Sebago loafers at
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HOW TO GIVE A GOOD READING DESPITE YOURSELF Photo Courtesy of Kane Reinhold Have you ever been to a reading where the author creeps apologetically to the podium and then stammers through page after page without once changing expression or making eye contact with the audience? Plenty of good writers give bad readings. It’s painful
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DON’T IRON YOUR CLOTHES ON YOUR BODYNO MATTER HOW LATE YOU ARE Photo Courtesy of Annie Spratt 0:00 / 0:00 A Cautionary Tale The phone rang at six p.m. I was supposed to meet my husband and his colleagues at a fancy restaurant downtown for dinner at 6:15. I was running so late that I
HOW TO SURVIVE REJECTION Photo Courtesy of Jakayla Toney I am an expert in the field of rejection. I stand before you today with exquisitely impressive rejection credentials. I’ve been rejected by The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, a top children’s book agency in California, and my first grade boyfriend, Walter Flemke, may he