On the challenges of writing fiction

Let me state for the record that all of the things I have done in life made sense at the time. I have never once thought, “Well, this will be an expensive, foolish, and ultimately useless endeavor. Where do I sign up?” No, I always think it is absolutely the right course of action under…

At the coffee shop, two young women who’ve recently completed their freshman year of college are comparing notes and talking about what they’ll be doing in the fall. Then they move on to a discussion about applying for study abroad programs that will take place in their junior year, and one of them says, “It’s…

It is turning colder here, and we’ve already had our first fire and roasted s’mores. I am thinking of my summer vacation, which was, to say the least, a curious one. But time smooths out the weird parts and I get to keep the good stuff.

I know many of you have been looking at the calendar, and I wanted to give a brief update about Jessica’s condition.  The surgery went well, and she is out of the ICU and in a regular med/surg bed at the hosptial.  She has been eating chicken strips and french fries and drinking as much…

A friend of mine who is forty-something recently had a baby. This is the third child she has welcomed into her life; the other two are school-aged. I met her for coffee recently, and had the chance to hug her sweet new baby and marvel at how calm and relaxed the new mama was. My…

A year. I am thinking about time lately. How the days can be so long and the years so short. I am at a loss as to where the decades of my life could have gone. The future slips away more and more quickly now. Soon, I think, all chance of the life I meant…