“I … hope that there is meaning in mess and pain, that more will be revealed, and that truth and beauty will somehow win out in the end.” — Anne Lamott Life is messy, sometimes unbelievably messy. What enables us to survive, more or less intact? …

In her book of essays, poet Mary Oliver wrote, “…you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.” It’s a lesson I learned the hard way, after breaking free of a very long, unhappy marriage. I learned it once more, as if to make sure I understood…

Are all of these delightful moments too much to ask of life? — I don’t know why finding what we need in life and then being happy with it is so hard. I think most of us want the same things: connection, acceptance, affection, and respect. Love. Like most of the single, straight women I know, I’m still waiting — but I’m no…

He wants to stay for a month, but a month is a long time to spend with a complete stranger, and my recent experience with a BnB guest who had to be forcefully evicted by my beefy next-door neighbor hasn’t left me in a trusting state of mind. “OK…but we’ll…

This summer I’ve been busy promoting my new women’s fiction series, set in northern New Mexico, “The Inn at Verde Springs.” Book one, The Renaissance Sisters, came out on May 23. Now, book two, Love Child, is set to be released on October 3. Book three will follow on April…

Begins With Determining What You Value — Why do I write? Because I personally feel that writing, at its best, is the most honest form of art. Creating a work of fiction lights me up and allows me to use every facet of my brain: creativity, critical thinking, imagination, empathy, and sleuthing skills, as well as memorization…

First, I’m late to the party, as “Shrill,” a series starring Aidy Bryant, premiered in 2019. Second, what I mean by skinny/not-skinny person is that a) I used to be skinny, and b) now I’m not. I’m not morbidly obese, but I’m twenty-five pounds above the upper limit of my…

As soon as I learned to hold a pencil properly, I began writing stories. I was serious about it. In the fourth grade, I even organized my first writing group — everyone was required to write horse stories. I wrote through junior high and high school, wrote for the paper…

But I’m pretty comfortable with the “Chick Lit” label — When I began writing fiction, I just wanted to write the stories that came to me, full of rich characters with their own quirks and personalities. …