Send in the (Ass)Clowns
I have long held that, separately, my husband and I are fairly intelligent people. But put us together, and we make one big stupid person. What was once valued in each of us as common sense, evaporates the moment we join forces. A plan that, on the outset, would sound to anyone else like something […]
Birthday Wishes and Dolphin Tears
“Discovery Cove.” There’s a truth to that name that extends far beyond the original intention of SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. I know that now. There’s a famous quote by Aristotle that states “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” But there is a more apt quote from Goethe that now defines my life: “Know […]
The Day of Wine and Posers (or: How to Piss Off the Gift Shop Gestapo)
I’m not usually in the habit of providing a disclaimer before I let my sardonic interpretation of an event run wild, but I will say this about the upcoming anecdote: I try never to get slapped with that label which is so widely scorned (and rightfully so), known as the “Ugly American.” But sometimes that […]
Seeds of Destruction: My Garden, the Final Resting Place
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water. . . . I will show you fear in a handful of dust. ― T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land What the friggin’ hell? I just planted […]
“You Be You!”: Letting My Characters Do What They Want, for the Most Part
Why do I let them do this? Because it’s better than sitting there with a raging case of writer’s block, that’s why. Have you ever tried to reason with a 2-year-old? It doesn’t usually work out in your favor, does it? It’s frustrating and ultimately exhausting. Well, I find sometimes that dealing with characters you’ve […]
Why I Don’t Write Horror
Toe-curling tales of the macabre will not spring from these keyboard-loving fingertips any time soon. It’s a shocking statement, perhaps, to most anyone who knows me, especially childhood friends who’d ever visited my house and stared, slack-jawed, at the Freddy Krueger posters and Fangoria pull-outs plastering the walls and ceiling of my room (ignore, for […]
“I feel a presence . . . and it’s mine.”
Being a writer these days entails much more than simply (yes, some of my fellow writers will rightfully scoff at the word “simply”) sitting at one’s computer keyboard at 2 a.m., wearing fuzzy Snoopy pants and an old “I Survived the Mayan Apocalypse of 2012” t-shirt, stuffing Sour Patch Kids in your face and just […]
