Write about what you know
Write about what matters
Write from the intangible tangle
of memory and imagination
You learn to write by reading and writing-writing and reading. It’s a craft acquired through the apprentice system, but you choose your own teachers. Some are living, others have died. You receive your vocation and in turn you must pass it on. Some writers accomplish this through their work, others teach. Regardless of how you do this, you’re part of a community of writers-a community of storytellers.
Seasons
There are two main seasons in Phoenix: summer and winter. Our fall and spring are bypassed for long stretches of sameness. Maybe there’s a hint of spring in March, when a frail rain falls, casting a silver net over the neighborhood. Then the sky clears and the flowers smell like baby lotion until the aroma…
Food lover finds a mate who’s just to her taste
As featured in the Los Angeles Times… He loves to cook, the way some people love to pray, or dance, or sing. I didn’t know that about him when we first met on Feb. 13, 2012. It was a blind date, and we hadn’t talked about our common love for food and cooking exotic dishes.…
Inside the Pages of My Head
Tonight I stay up past midnight, determined to finish a book I’ve been reading for the past two months. I read the first hundred pages during my husband’s radiation therapy, the second hundred during his unexpected five–day hospitalization when he was diagnosed with radiation pneumonitis, and another fifty or so pages during our trip to…
My Husband Is Dying. I Am Watching Him Die.
The Start of a Collage Michael wears a black knit cap over his head and it covers the tops of his ears. He tells me the hat represents his fight against this dam disease—cancer. I begin to take photos of all the family and friends who visit. I tell him I want to have a…
Treading Water
Selling a treadmill last weekend on Craigslist didn’t go as planned. It was part of a larger project to downsize and discard all items that tend to sit and collect dust. But there was something different about the treadmill; after all these years it had become a part of my décor, an artifact attached to…
The ‘ART’ of Saying Goodbye
Art Buchwald-1925-2007 Art’s legacy to nurses It’s not easy for someone facing death to discuss dying, give advice, or spout off clever anecdotes. It’s a personal time in one’s life that usually isn’t shared with the world. This wasn’t the case with Art Buchwald, the Pulitzer Prize-winning political satirist who died of renal failure on…
Run Tip Run
My first grade teacher, Mrs. Harrison, warns me to stop laughing. She glares at me over her rimless glasses, points her index finger as if it was a toy gun, then folds her arms squarely across her chest. I look at my best friend, Joanie, with her short red hair and cocoa colored freckles. She…
Bedtime Stories
Bedtime Stories I’ve always dreaded sleep. As a child, I’d read with a flashlight under my blanket convinced that turning in meant missing out on fun. I tried to train myself to sleep with my forearm upright, my head propped on my palm, so that if my parents walked by my room, they’d see that…
Selfies
What do you really look like? Aren’t you the world’s leading authority on the subject? After all, we’ve looked at ourselves and studied our faces for years, not to mention with a life-or-death intensity, in all magnifications—lighted car visors and rearview mirrors, unrippled ponds, and old photos. I’ve even glanced at my face through an…
Driving Ms. Gracie
On the Tuesday before New Year’s Eve, we packed up the car with two duffel bags, one cosmetic case, a hanging bag, cooler for snacks, and one Bedlington terrier named Gracie. But before you feel sorry for her, picture a sheepskin lined doggie seat with a safety belt, plenty of snacks, toys, and her…
Strobes, Candles, and Magic
Strobes, Candles, and Magic It’s a small bedroom, with tan walls, a twin-size bed, a wooden nightstand on His side, and a plastic storage container to my left. Sometimes I toss a lace bra or silk panties sideways and they land on the table top, but mostly it’s a place to keep a bottle of…
Six Women Dine at Scottsdale Restaurant
June 25, 2011 This headline would hardly raise eyebrows or make the news. Six women meeting on a Friday evening at an upscale Scottsdale café should have been filmed for a documentary or at least portrayed on a reality show. These women are real people who are often misunderstood by others who haven’t experienced the…