Posts Tagged ‘bespotted’
COMING FULL CIRCLE TO LIFE
How did I get through the loss of Gulliver, the dog of my heart, to whom I dedicated Bespotted? How did I put away my grief and return to living and enjoying myself once again? The answer is a simple one: I bred a litter of puppies. Two years after Gulliver’s death, we sent our girl,…
Read MorePUBLICATION PSYCHOSIS AND A PUPPY FIX
Writers keep bizarre schedules: some compose late at night, some early in the morning, some whenever the urge overwhelms them. I am a disciplined early riser–or should I say that my three Dalmatians are early risers who tromp all over me and my blankets until I get up and feed them at 6:45 a.m., just…
Read MoreGive The Boy A Dog This Summer
When I was a child, my parents held out to me the example of an excellent and dedicated writer, my great-grandfather, Arthur Gray Staples. My mother, a Pulitzer-Prize winning poet herself, told me many stories of his life in Maine, in the early 1900’s, as the editor-in-chief of the Lewiston Evening Journal, which was considered…
Read MoreStaying By The Side Of My Wild Child
All of us have daily challenges, and sometimes tackling them can be demoralizing. We try so hard, whether it is in climbing out of bed to face a routine that bores us, or in trekking off every day to a demanding job. Or maybe it’s in maintaining our patience with our whiny or needy children—whom…
Read MoreSatisfaction and Bliss
This week I am rejoicing! I have finally completed the first start-to-finish draft of my novel. Daydreams In The Dark has a beginning, a middle and an end–the bones of plot, character and theme are in place, the skin of the story drawn tight. Only the meaty details need to be shaped and added. The pages are…
Read MoreThe Gift of Words + Year-Long Book Giveaway!
Maya Angelou said it best: “When you get, give.” In the spirit of her sentiment I am running a contest to gift to you any one of my books, your choice. Gratitude for my readers was sparked not only from the recent holiday that embodies the emotion, but from my latest writing adventure as well.…
Read MoreDon’t Mess With Mr. In-Between
It’s Sunday afternoon, and my dogs lie beside me on the couch, chewing on fresh bones, while my husband watches the 49’ers game. Because the weather is somewhat rainy (cause for celebration here in California) and because the 49’ers are winning (another miracle at which to marvel), I am happy just to hang out, even…
Read MoreDodging Curveballs
Sometimes life sends us curveballs. Just when we are least expecting it, a new situation arises, be it good or bad, and we are left scrambling. Not so long ago, I was talking with a friend whose older sister had died suddenly quite some time ago, and who was having difficulty coming to terms with…
Read MoreONE WORD AT A TIME
Last week, as some of you will remember from the invitation I sent out, I was lucky enough to be “in conversation with” author Erica Jong, just as the last newsletter was going out. It was an evening event with a best-selling novelist who also just happens to be one of the friends I most…
Read MoreAT MY MOTHER’S KNEE
I was born into a home filled with shelves stuffed full of books. When I was a child, my mother, the poet Anne Sexton, frequently read aloud to me, and the first book I would remember well was a dog-eared blue volume of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, full of all its macabre horrors. As I reached…
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