“Viva la Dragonfly”

Before the Golden Heart® class of 2015 named itself the Dragonflies, I hadn’t thought much about that particular insect. I hadn’t had a positive experience with dragonflies, but I hadn’t had a negative one either. Dragonflies were simply peripheral...

Celebrating heroes (and dads)

Sometimes it seems anti-heroes are everywhere.Many are in our workplaces, as the recent #DistractinglySexy Twitter campaign in response to sexism in science illustrates.Anti-heroes also appear on public transport. Like the man in a suit and carrying a laptop bag who,...

Hope…in life and writing

I’ve thought a lot lately about my mission as a writer. What do I want readers to take away from my work? To answer that question, I keep coming back to the angel teddy bear perched on the bookshelf beside my writing desk.The bear was a gift I gave myself many...

Ten things I wish I’d known about the writing life

A friend working on her first fiction manuscript emailed me this week to ask if I had “any words of wisdom” to share. I answered her privately, but her questions made me think about the things I wish I’d known when I started writing in pursuit of...

Finding goodness

As regular readers of this blog know, goodness is my word for 2015. My last post focused on a bend in the road, and how hard it was to find goodness in a difficult life situation.The response to that post overwhelmed me and, just when I thought goodness was scarce, I...