In the bestselling memoir, “ The Glass Castle,” Jeannette Walls writes about how her mother urges her author daughter to “just tell the truth.” However, in many families and for many of us nonfiction authors, it’s rarely that simple. Recently, I remembered Ms. …

Last year, the best gift under my tree was a packet of black, ball-point pens. I mean “best,” as in, this was the gift that got me really excited, that I couldn’t wait to open up and use. My ballpoint pens had that rubber padding or sleeve around them, so…

Vampires? Witches? Ghouls? Politicians? Yes, they’re Halloween scary (maybe), but on our worst writing days, they’ve got nothing on our spookiest writer moments. Right? Here are the three aspects of the writing life that can send us screeching and cowering under our bed covers. I’m also including some suggested fixes. …

I’m passionate (some would say ‘cranky’) about our right to tell our own story, to document our lived experiences as they have happened to us and have been processed through our individual consciousness. As a writing workshop facilitator, it’s an honor and privilege to create the space in which new…

You know that old saying, “You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone?” During our 2020 COVID pandemic lockdown, the thing I missed most from my “normal” life was … no, not dining in restaurants, not outdoor barbecues, not shopping centers (yuck), not bars and certainly not gyms (yuck…

Growing up, we had no household telephone. Instead, in our rural Irish village, we had one of those street-side payphones. You know the ones: They were cream with a green trim. Inside, you had to turn a black handle to dial the operator. …

As a writer and as a white woman and as a naturalized U.S. citizen, I cannot yet write about systemic racism and our police murdering my fellow citizens and residents and documented or undocumented immigrants. I cannot write about a COVID-19 pandemic that, in some U.S. …

January 6, 2021 In my native Ireland, January 6th is Nollaig na mBan or Women’s Little Christmas, when our mothers were supposed to kick back and relax while our fathers did the housework. Em .. Right. Elsewhere, depending on your country, tradition or religious belief, January 6 is either just…

(Psst: Most can be bought at your local dollar store) Got a writer on your gift list this year? Just trot on over to your local discount place. Here are some items for your shopping list: 1. Small, pocket-sized notebooks . We need them for those middle-of-the-night or stuck-on-a-train ideas. 2. Boxes of thank-you cards. I love to…