Tedious, tiresome or monotonous, deadly dull, and honestly, that is the life of a writer.
Writing happens in fits and starts, in between, it’s all about editing out the crap, coming back from our self-induced distractions, and of course multiple trips to the refrigerator. Back and forth I walk from the office to kitchen, kitchen to office, office to kitchen not unlike the cursor that moves stoically across the page.
I emulate the actions of my mind or is it my hands that emulate the actions of my body?
Most of the time I open the refrigerator, look around, finding nothing of interest, I close the door, and leave. Returning to my computer, I open the page, browse the unappealing verbiage, close the computer, and leave. I might need therapy?
Why do we do it?
What is the impetuous for keeping that blasted cursor moving across the page?
Maybe I have this deep-seated hunger to reveal a tiny slice of reality. I reach for the dusty curtains, coughing as I push back the material that blocks your view, for a moment I’m blinded by the light that floods the room. I’m trying to show you something, I keep looking for the right words to describe what I see but I have to fight to get outside of myself. Painstakingly I crawl closer and closer to the truth. Knees bleeding.
No wonder writers drink.
I wrap my words in so much shit if I washed away most of it, the rawness of what is left would only scratch the surface of what is true. I never fully arrive. It’s agonizing, like rashes, they itch, and I scratch them until they bleed but the paresthesia is never satisfied. You know what I mean?
Some days I delete everything I write. Not one word is worth repeating. I toss my notebook across the room, it’s as if I am rejecting myself, and I’m thrown back to elementary school where it was a daily fight to belong.
It’s part of the deal, it’s the burden we carry, gutted by depletion we struggle on.
Then there are the good days when everything flows as if a gentle stream trickling through a secret garden. These are the stakes that keep everything in place. But I’m camping on private land, signs posted “No Trespassing,” and this is how I understand grace. It’s undeserved.
Today I’m writing with the computer on my lap, still in bed, with a cup of lukewarm coffee at my side. I’m already late with this post, I wrote the words above yesterday, I was clearly in a mood. Today, I’m picking through the words as if a pizza with anchovies that I asked for on the side. I can’t figure out where I was going and why I ordered an entire pie for myself?
Details, land rights, pulled up stakes? What the hell. Yesterday I had a direction but clearly, I’ve misplaced the map and now I’m standing in the middle of a post and have no idea where it’s going. Shit.
I slip out of the warm covers, make the incredibly short trek to the kitchen, but this time I refuse to open the refrigerator, I have the contents memorized, and besides there is nothing there that will satisfy my craving. I need a different sort of propellant.
I consider crawling back to my room just to be dramatic but I think better of it as the floors haven’t been mopped in a while.
Slipping into the still warm covers, I go back to the first line, which is usually where I stash my agenda and read it again, “Tedious, tiresome or monotonous, deadly dull, and honestly, that is the life of a writer.”
John Updike said about writing fiction, “nothing less than the subtlest instrument for self-examination and self-display that mankind has invented.” Meaning, we’re not only writing a story, we are revealing more than we know about our own quirks and nuances in between the lines of our story, like finding yourself naked in a dream, but you’re also running around trying to find a barrier for your nakedness ~ when there are none to be found. Such is the life of a writer.
“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.” Dorothy Parker
It’s as if you’ve agreed to have a live stream video attached to your home 24/7. As Dani Shapiro says, “we are constructing the very thing that holds us. We have nothing to latch on to. If beginnings and ends are shorelines, middles are where we dive deep, where we patch holes, where we risk drowning.” As Loyd Alexander says “fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It’s a way of understanding it.”
The strange thing about being a writer, aside from the benefit of humiliating family and friends, is that it requires very little physical risk, but a shit load of courage. I’m not one to fill my bucket list with skydiving expeditions, scuba excursions, or mountain climbing but when I’m tucked in bed, slugging down my fourth cup of coffee, my thighs heated from balancing my MacBook for hours on end, the house empty, the dog asleep next to the bed, and a light rain is beginning to fall - I’m as fearless as Evil Knievel (the guy that broke every bone in his body, google him).
“Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely essential.” Jessamyn WestIt’s
It's as if I’m scuba diving for treasure, I stay down until I’m almost out of air, then using restraint I slowly rise to the surface, flushed with excitement. Most of the time I come up with nothing but an empty hand, maybe a broken shell, but on those rare occasions when I do find something of value, I hold it up to the light, positioning it for all to see.
But as we all know courage and fearlessness are very different mobilities, courage asks us to do what we are compelled to do, feeling the fear, but doing it anyway.
Writers are a strange breed, don’t you agree? I mean who would prefer being cooped up in their room, avoiding life so they can try and tap into some deep-seated knowledge about the nature of humanity and the meaning of creation or a solution to the zombie Apocolypse?
“I think horror, when done well, is one of the most direct and honest ways to get to the core of the human experience because terror reduces all of us to our most authentic forms.” Alistair CrossI
I can spend hours typing every little thought that comes into my head but I end up deleting more words than I keep. I have to remind myself that this isn’t normal, most people avoid writing, or find the task so distasteful they hire someone to write for them. So how is it I’ve come to believe they’re the crazy ones?
“Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation.” Graham Greene
When I fail to make space for writing it’s as if I need a blood transfusion, the words pumping the rich oxygenated cells throughout my depleted body, without it I believe I would simply die?
I’ve been in a writing group for over a year now, we have always met on Zoom, as our formation happened at the beginning of the pandemic. Our group consists of nine people from around the world, half male, half female, different ages, temperaments, and ethnicities. We meet once a week to “encourage and support” one another. We’re more like a murder of crows, squawking about this and that, watching for subtleties in our writing, pushing each other to break out of ingrained patterns, fly out of formation so to speak, knowing we can bring each other to greater heights with the subtleties of gentle underpinning.
As Dani Shapiro says, “Each and every day that you approach the page, you are reaching for it once again. At times, it will elude you. At times, it will seem to have abandoned you. But in the face of this, be persistent, dogged, patient, determined. Remember that this moment, this day, is one stitch in a tapestry of days.” I love that.
It’s an occupation where one never actually arrives, we just glide with the wind of our thoughts, see where they take us, the destination matters not, it’s all about the journey.
"The only bird that dares to peck an eagle is the crow. The crow sits on the eagle's back and bites his neck. The eagle does not respond, nor fight with the crow; it does not spend time or energy on the crow, instead, he just opens its wings and begins to rise higher in the heavens. The higher the flight, the harder it is for the crow to breathe, and eventually, the crow falls off due to a lack of oxygen.
Learn from the eagle and don't fight the crows in life, just keep ascending, the detractors might be along for the ride but they'll eventually fall away. Do not allow yourself to succumb to the distractions...keep your focus on the things above and continue rising." Solara.
“As for literary criticism in general: I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel or a play or a poem is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or a banana split.” kurt Vonnegut
We are indeed an unusual breed, trained for a specific task, and therein lies our value, because it is both a privilege and an instinct to bring a banquet of stories to a starving world.
Join me in the comments! Love to hear your thoughts on being a writer in the world today.
“If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.” Martin Luther
A few years ago I had the great fortune to be invited to contribute to a YA anthology called Wicked South: Secrets and Lies. Emily Colin was one of the editors of that anthology, and I enjoyed working with her immensely. Luckily, she remembered me several years later and invited me to participate in her newest project, a YA anthology called Unbound, Stories of Transformation, Love, and Monsters, from Five Points Press.
I'm here today with New York Times bestselling author, Emily Colin and her SIBA Award Winning co-editor, Madeline Dyer, to get the details on this forthcoming anthology and find out more about their work on the book. Welcome Emily and Madeline!
When Emily approached me about the anthology, she said the stories should all be based on a theme of "transformation." But before she reached out, there had obviously been a lot of plotting and scheming going on behind the scenes. So, where
did the idea to do a group anthology come from, and how did y'all settle on a
theme?
MD: I can’t
specifically remember the occasion that we first thought of creating an
anthology—it just seemed to be one of those ideas that had been bouncing around
our group-chat for a little while—but it was during lockdown in 2020 when we
really began to seriously think about it. The five of us in the group-chat
(Emily, Lisa Amowitz, Sarah Anderson, Heidi Ayarbe, and I) thought that if we
each wrote a novella/long short story, we’d have quite a good-sized anthology
between us and also have all the skills we need to bring it to life, as while
we’re all authors, between us we also have experience in all the other parts of
publication—editing, cover design, interior art, marketing, etc. So, that’s
where it started.
And we settled
on the theme of transformation pretty quickly really. We knew right away that
we needed a theme that was flexible and could be adapted to a lot of different
stories. That was really important as we didn’t want to be too prescriptive or
controlling in what we were asking our writers to produce, and so themes that
can be interpreted in many different ways (and across different genres too) are
great.
Once we had
the theme, we drew up a list of authors that we knew who we wanted to
personally invite to submit work to our anthology before we put out general
calls for submissions too.
EC: I feel
like Madeline really said it all! I’ll add that the transformation theme also
came from how challenging 2020 (and now, 2021) has been for all of us—that it’s
changed every person I know in some ways, both big and small. We wanted to take
that transformative energy and direct it into something creative. Our group has
been a tremendous safe haven for us—even though between the five of us, we’re
located in four different countries (the US, the UK, France, and Colombia), we
chat multiple times every day—and we wanted to put some of that positive energy
out into the world, during a time that we all need something to look forward
to.
For me, there isn't a word better than "transformation" to exemplify the young adult experience, both in life and in literature. Young adulthood is literally the period of transformation between childhood and adulthood. There's so much change during that time, spawning so many experiences, and this anthology seems like a great expression of those various experiences. But having to choose just a few of those myriad stories seems like an overwhelming task! Can
you tell me a little about what the process of putting together this anthology
has been like from the Editors' point of view?
EC: Oh my
gosh. It’s been fun, it’s been challenging, it’s been an adventure. We decided
that out of the five of us, Lisa and Sarah would concentrate on design, Heidi
would brainstorm marketing ideas, and Madeline and I—since we edit
professionally—would take on that side of things. I’m in the US and Madeline’s
in the UK, so sometimes coordinating stuff that we had to do in real time—such
as having conversations with contributing authors—created a logistical
quandary, but we figured it out!
Madeline talks
a bit about how the details of the process worked, below, so I won’t go into
that too much—but I will say that when you’re working with a diverse group of
contributors, in terms of geography, background, styles, interests, experience,
etc., it’s important to find a flow with each author. Madeline and I each
worked with a select group of the contributors, but sometimes we’d collaborate
to figure out the best approach for a given story. I loved this—editing can be
a lonely process sometimes. It was lovely to have another editor to bounce
ideas and thoughts off, and Madeline is brilliant. I felt spoiled!
MD: It’s been
a lot of work! I definitely under-estimated how much work it would be. I write
and edit full-time, and I thought at first that this would just be a nice,
little side project! How wrong was I! Turns out co-editing an anthology is hard
work and so, so time-consuming.
As stories
came in, Emily and I read each one and voted on whether to include it (as well
as getting Lisa, Heidi, and Sarah to vote too). We marked stories ‘yes’ or ‘no’
and began to think about how we’d work editorially on each story while also
preserving individual voices and making the anthology into a cohesive whole.
When we’d
finalised which stories we wanted, Emily and I divided them between us, and we
each worked with the authors on developmental, line, and copyedits. And of
course Emily and I were each writing our own stories too—we were each other’s
editors for those, so that was super fun.
How many stories will the anthology have and what kind of genres can readers expect to see?
MD: We’ve got 12 pieces in this YA anthology, including a thought-provoking contemporary story with an unreliable narrator, a beautifully poignant narrative poem, epic fantasy stories, and some dark and chilling speculative fiction. We’ve also got a number of #ownvoices stories in this collection too.
EC: Well, the anthology’s subtitle is Transformation, Love, and Monsters, so…I feel like that kind of says it all! One of the things I really adored about editing UNBOUND is that the theme ties all the stories together—but within that, there’s so much variety. As Madeline said, there are contemporary stories grounded in our reality, urban fantasy, dystopian fiction, love stories with a twist…the central theme is change, and that’s something that all of the characters in these stories do—for good or for ill!
Among those 12 stories are the 3 that we've individually contributed as authors. I describe my story, "Of Marshmallows and Monsters", as a slightly fantastical, YA version of Pitbulls and Parolees--a girl seeks redemption for her gruesome past by rehabilitating monsters. Can you both give us a little hint of what your stories will be about?
MD: Sure! So, mine is called “Inside the Night,” and it’s a dark YA fantasy with a contemporary setting. It’s about a mysterious Power in the sky that turns people to stone, and it draws heavily on Greek mythology and the Medusa story, as well as taking a very feminist angle. It’s also #ownvoices for ace rep and chronic illness rep.
EC: Oooh, yes! Mine is called “Smooth the Descent,” based on the quote, “Smooth the descent, easy is the way.” If you’re familiar with Virgil’s Aeneid, you might recognize that this references the descent into hell. ;) My short story is set in the universe of my YA trilogy, where people live—and die—by the laws of the Seven Deadly Sins. In it, a teenage librarian whose passionate curiosity far exceeds her restrictive society’s limits, and a medic whose desire to heal sends him in pursuit of forbidden knowledge, collide—and, despite the fact that lust is punishable by death, they fall in love. Hijinks ensue.
A little Easter egg—if you’ve read the first book or prequel novella in my Seven Sins series, you’ll recognize that the librarian and the medic in question are none other than my main character Ari’s parents.
I've read both of the full-length novels in Emily's Seven Sins series (one of which is the soon-to-be-released sequel, Final Siege of the Seven Sins. It's awesome having connections and getting to read advanced copies!) and I'm super thrilled to get to read more set in that world. Along with introducing readers to your writing, what do you hope readers will get from this anthology?
MD: When I was editing the stories in this anthology, my favourite thing was the escapism it offered. These stories are all so different, and we’re covering many different genres while also examining the idea of transformation from so many different angles—the characters are engaging, the stories exciting, the plots surprising. One moment I’m on the moors of Scotland learning about folklore and monsters, the next I’m in an American museum where there’s a mummy on the loose. These stories really just grab you—and so I think (and hope) that escapism will be one of the big things that readers get. Especially in the current climate—escapism is what so many of us need.
EC: I couldn’t agree more! We created this anthology to give ourselves an escape from the crushing reality of recent events—and for me, at least, it delivered! I hope that readers will find that same sense of freedom in its pages—the sense of being transported to a world that exists alongside our own, where each story is a universe unto itself.
Also, we were intentional, as Madeline mentions, about including a diverse group of authors. The writers in UNBOUND hail from Colombia, the UK, France, Cyprus, and the United States, and their stories represent their perspectives—including LGBTQIA+, chronic illness, and BIPOC representation. I hope that readers see themselves reflected in our characters, and find themselves spending time with kindred spirits as they read.
When, where, and how will the anthology be available to readers?
Unbound releases on the 15th February, and it’ll be available as a free ebook download on Amazon and other ebook retailers. There will also be hard copies available to purchase from the usual sites and stores too.
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me about Unbound and give us a glimpse at the hard behind-the-scenes work the editors have to put into such an undertaking. I'm so proud to be a part of this project, and can't wait to share it with our readers. Find out more about Emily and Madeline here:
Emily Colin's debut novel, The Memory Thief, was a New York
Times bestseller and a Target Emerging Authors Pick. She is also the author of
The Dream Keeper’s Daughter (Ballantine Books). Her young adult titles include
the anthology Wicked South: Secrets and Lies and the Seven Sins series,
including the upcoming Shadows of the Seven Sins (June 2021) and Siege of the
Seven Sins (August 2021), from Blue Crow Publishing.
Emily's diverse life experience includes organizing a Coney
Island tattoo and piercing show, hauling fish at a dolphin research center,
roaming New York City as an itinerant teenage violinist, helping launch two
small publishing companies, and working to facilitate community engagement in
the arts. Originally from Brooklyn, Emily lives in coastal North Carolina with
her family. She loves chocolate, is addicted to tiramisu, and dislikes anything
containing beans.
Emily is represented by Felicia Eth Literary. You can find
her at www.emilycolin.com.
Madeline Dyer is a SIBA-award winning author. She lives on a
farm in the southwest of England, where she hangs out with her Shetland ponies
and writes dark and twisty young adult books. She is pursuing her MA in
Creative Writing from Kingston University, having obtained a BA honors degree
in English from the University of Exeter. Madeline has a strong love for
anything dystopian or ghostly, and she can frequently be found exploring wild
places. At least one notebook is known to follow her wherever she goes.
Her books include the Untamed series, the Dangerous Ones
series, and Captive: A Poetry Collection on OCD, Psychosis, and Brain
Inflammation.
Madeline is represented by Erin Clyburn at the Jennifer De
Chiara Literary Agency. You can find her at www.madelinedyer.co.uk.
We are learning so much during these tumultuous times, but we are not at war with a virus, that's about hatred, violence, and destruction, as it turns out our best defense is love, not hate. I think we're rediscovering the innate value of family, our neighbor, and community, but most importantly how creativity might be our saving grace if we ever hope to fully understand what I'm calling a modern-day miracle.
This year everything looks different from just about any other and our ability to adapt our lifestyle to continually shifting restrictions has been challenging to say the least. Thanksgiving dinners across the country will most likely be smaller events, Christmas might not include relatives from across the country, or grandparents who remain our most vulnerable population. We've not only put off grooming, socializing, traveling, worshiping, mourning, but celebrating life and our most cherished traditions.
I think it's interesting to note how science fiction writers have historically taken on threatening pandemics, zombie apocalypses, and alien invasions, presenting worst-case scenarios, and our less than stellar human response to the unknown, especially when livelihoods are threatened, common goods are in short supply, and we resort to hoarding, hunkering down, amassing weapons, and preparing for battle.
We're such a vindictive species!
We have fought against many different threats in our past, at first with sticks, swords, spears, cannons, machine guns, and finally atomic bombs as we squabble over land, power, equality, and necessary commodities that were pertinent to our survival.
Here we are in 2020 with our established constitution, policies, two-party government, allies, well-supplied military, but currently it is our susceptibility to a complex virus that is creating animosity between us.
As we race towards a vaccine, a solution, a panacea if you will, the world watches and waits, but maybe the disease is not the virus, maybe we are the disease?
This virus could care less about borders, nationalities, cultures, skin color, social status, or the strength of one's military. What we need to establish is a strong sense of personal responsibility and collaboration if we hope to overcome this virus. It's as counter-cultural as Jesus was in his time, calling for compassion, mercy, justice, solidarity, kindness, and peace in a time when survival depended on the strength of one's clan when confronted by violent regimes.
The message recently launched by Pope Francis is "no one is saved alone," and that seems particularly relevant to our current situation. We are called to be altruistic in a society that prides itself on individualism and independence. Cooperation is going to be key in terms of our eventual salvation both spiritually and physically from this plague.
This worldwide lockdown is in response to a contagion that has taken advantage of our "congested" lifestyle. Crowded markets, sporting events, theaters, churches, bars, travel industry, cruise ships, prisons, weddings, funerals, and communal celebrations have spread this invisible virus to every known part of the globe, and we can no longer ignore the need for separation, restraint, and personal responsibility.
I wake up every morning comparing and contrasting my old life with this new one and the difference is striking. As I try to envision what a post-coronavirus world will look like I'm struck by the importance of storytellers. People are writing about the pandemic from every corner of the world, sharing their unique perspective, their victories, and their failures so the rest of us can benefit. This is likely the most curative thing we can do.
Was it only eight months ago when I was confronted by this new reality? At first, I thought it was sort of exciting, I figured we'd be in lockdown for a few weeks, maybe a month, and now we see how this virus has deceived us all, we'll most likely be under the influence of COVID-19 for decades to come.
I believe it takes obedience and humility to do what is asked of you, that is miraculous, that is what it means to be saintly. We can all do this today. This contagion is intermingled with the air we breathe, and it has brought us to our collective knees, some are more vulnerable than others, but no one is exempt. It will take all of us working collectively to fully eradicate this virus from our world and that in itself is miraculous indeed.
I have spent a great deal of time focused on yet another shift - as in occupational - my sixth I believe - only to discover this holistic inner longing - to become a writer - gritty - exposed (except for the fig leaf) - which I believed to be absurdly unique for someone my age - ends up being as common as a hang nail, just as annoying, and completely devoid of value. Shit.
I have a thing for Nora Ephron. I wonder if anyone else struggles with the same affliction?
I walk around dropping Ephron quotes like bread crumbs, as if meaningless idioms can be tracked, and followed. Most of the time I get blank stares? "Who?" Then I shout, "Everything is copy," which I think is hysterical. Apparently I'm the only one? I start spewing bullet points from Ephron's resume. "When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail!" Nothing? Most people need to refresh their drink at this point, which suits me just find, I wasn't enjoying your company either.
I have come to grips with the fact I'll never be Nora Ephron. I'm not Jewish, I don't write screenplays, nor am I fearless, acute, or funny but we do share the same birthday. It's our thing. I'm not sure if life happened to Nora or Nora happens to life because she struggles at being Nora too. Don't we all.
I mean the struggle to be our authentic selves, not Nora.
She wrote, "after I went into therapy, a process that made it possible for me to tell total strangers at cocktail parties that breasts were the hang-up of my life, I was often told that I was insane to have been bothered by my condition (small breasts syndrom)." Her large breasted girlfriends assured her their lives were much more miserable than hers, to which she responded, "I think you are full of shit." Who doesn't love her?
Nora's dirty laundry is epic and she hangs it out for everyone to see. In her best selling novel Heartburn she recounts with fictional characters her devastating divorce from Carl Bernstein. It's sharp, painful, and funny all at once. Your emotions get confused, fighting to emerge at the same time, as in wincing with a smile, or laughing so hard your hernia kicks in, but you really just want to cry. She does this with words.
What are you going to do? Everything, is my guess. It will be a little messy, but embrace the mess. It will be complicated, but rejoice in the complications. Nora Ephron
In chapter thirteen of her novel Heartburn, "If I had to do it over again, I would have made a different kind of pie. The pie I threw at Mark made a terrific mess, but a blueberry pie would have been even better, since it would have permanently ruined his new blazer, the one he bought with Thelma." She throws a pie at her husband and we all cheer. She helps us not only imagine what a blueberry pie would look like on a new jacket, but how satisfaction is an impermanent condition, as our emotions tend to be. The pie, the mess, her husbands surprise, and yet absolutely nothing changed. Her husband was still having an affair with her best friend while she was expecting their second child. It's pitiful but you don't pity her. Why? She owned the story.
When you slip on a banana peel, people laugh at you; but when you tell people you slipped on a banana peel, it's your laugh. So you become the hero rather than the victim of the joke. Nora Ephron
This is what I like best about Nora. When asked why she's compelled to turn everything into a story she said, "because if I tell the story, I control the version. Because if I tell the story, I can make you laugh, and I would rather have you laugh at me than feel sorry for me. Because if I tell the story, it doesn't hurt as much. Because if I tell the story, I can get on with it." She does lament the hardest thing about writing is writing. Nora Ephron passed away in 2012 and I've been trying to channel her ever since. She's busy, I get it, but once in a while she throws me a bone, and I come up with this spectacular thought so beyond my scoop, that all I can do is bow down and thank her!
You do get to a certain point in life where you have to realistically, I think, understand that the days are getting shorter, and you can't put things off thinking you'll get to them someday. If you really want to do them, you better do them. There are simply too many people getting sick, and sooner or later you will. Nora Ephron
Nora wrote, "I spent my first 45 years never thinking about my nails. Occasionally, I filed them with the one lone wretched emery board I owned, put a little polish on them, and went out into the world." My life as a hang nail is going pretty well especially when you consider I could be snipped at any moment. I've been hanging on, annoying the best of you for years, maybe it's time for a manicure?
I look out the window and I see the lights and the skyline and the people on the street rushing around looking for action, love, and the world's greatest chocolate chip cookie, and my heart does a little dance. Nora Ephron
“We have a game we play when we’re waiting for tables in restaurants, where you have to write the five things that describe yourself on a piece of paper. When I was [in my twenties], I would have put: ambitious, Wellesley graduate, daughter, Democrat, single. Ten years later not one of those five things turned up on my list. I was: journalist, feminist, New Yorker, divorced, funny. Today not one of those five things turns up in my list: writer, director, mother, sister, happy.” Nora Ephron
“And so, Thanksgiving. Its the most amazing holiday. Just think about it — it's a miracle that once a year so many millions of Americans sit down to exactly the same meal as one another, exactly the same meal they grew up eating, and exactly the same meal they ate a year earlier. The turkey. The sweet potatoes. The stuffing. The pumpkin pie. Is there anything else we all can agree so vehemently about? I don't think so." Nora Ephron
I'll have what she's having. Nora Ephron
Do you have an author obsession? Share a few thoughts in the comments!
We're a diverse group of writers, ranging from kidlit to adult. What is the one thing we all have in common? The love of a good story. Welcome, and thanks for stopping by. We'll see you on Mondays & Thursdays!
