Bonked on the Head by the Swamp Monster

Bonked on the Head by the Swamp Monster

In the days since the election, since the great dismantling, I haven’t had a clue how to approach the business of selling my writing classes. At first it just felt too smarmy to put a picture of myself on Facebook with a note about the January 2017 teaching schedule....
But Was it Life Changing?

But Was it Life Changing?

“Was it life changing?” my daughter, Zoe asked me this morning as I groggily sat at the kitchen table drinking coffee. I’d gotten home from nearly three weeks in South Africa the night before, had managed a few hours of sleep, and was now on my third cup of coffee and...
The Duchess of Coolsville

The Duchess of Coolsville

So there we were at the Rickie Lee Jones concert in San Francisco a few months ago – my pal Ann and I. We thought we were going to be late, but it turned out Rickie Lee was even later. Apparently her band’s bus had broken down 8 hours away and had finally chug-a-lugged it into San Francisco…

The Parting of the Veils

The Parting of the Veils

I keep wanting to text my younger brother Wally, who is recovering from surgery in Los Angeles. I keep wanting to ask him, “What’s it like now?” to find out if he’s still standing in the light that shone when the veils parted two weeks ago, when a football sized tumor…

The Doggy Dog Truth

The Doggy Dog Truth

Here’s the doggy dog truth. It’s Thursday night and for practically a whole week, when I haven’t been teaching – which I do every morning – or going to the gym for a run, I’ve been sitting in this chair in my living room trying to write a piece on family, which someone has asked me to write. I’ve come at it from every angle, trying to find a way in, a great first line or an anecdote. I thought I had it at one point, but two smart writer friends sent me back to the drawing board. It’s due in a couple of days and I can’t say that I’ve gotten any closer to moving into the heart of the piece