Lots of you know my friend Angela already (some in person, some on Live Journal - here's the link to her blog, and some by reference), and today I'm celebrating her. Not just because it's her birthday, though it is, but also because she's had lots of good publishing news of late ( Read more... )

And you can help me. Pop on over to Angela De Groot's blog and congratulate her on becoming an award-winning poet!



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Yesterday was a flurry of activity as I ran a variety of errands relating to S's upcoming prom (a fitting), M's then-upcoming evening (a sweet 16 party for a friend of hers, which required a few purchases), and shopping for my trip to New Hampshire, whence I am now writing this blog post ( Read more... )

I had a playdate today. A grown-up, writerly sort of playdate, but a playdate nonetheless, with Jennifer R. Hubbard (writerjenn) and Angela De Groot (angeladegrootJenn organized us, and we met at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where we poked about for nearly two hours, and each of us wrote at least three things based on some piece we were viewing ( Read more... )

In light of yesterday's sorrow, I'm looking things over and finding five good things to list ( Read more... )

It's not that late, but I have my jammies on already, and will be going to bed soon. I consider that a good thing.

This afternoon, I had some of the best potato salad I've ever ingested. That writerjenn sure knows how to peel a potato (and combine it with just the right amount of other stuff). I also had some delicious peach cobbler. NOM ( Read more... )

About a month ago, I heard Billy Collins read some of his poetry at the Free Library in Philadelphia. It's the second time I've heard Collins read in person, although I've heard other of his poems online - he is on NPR, and all over YouTube, for example. I happen to like his poems, and I definitely like how he reads them. After his reading, Collins ( Read more... )

. . . to Aunt Martha's house we go!

Angela (angeladegroot) and I are here in New Hampshire at the condominium of solitude on our now-annual writing retreat. It was a hell of a long ride, interrupted by traffic and rain and near-death experiences (most of which took place in front of us, so we weren't directly involved, but yikes! There are some scary drivers ( Read more... )

The quote in today's icon comes from one of Jane Austen's letters to her sister.

My friend Angela De Groot made a good point the other day. Sometimes, it's not really writer's block that's an issue:

"I believe writer’s reluctance dovetails with writer’s block - sometimes all you need is a beginning, somebody or something to help you get rolling ( Read more... )

I cannot recall if I've talked about this here before or not, but my writing partner Angela
(angeladegroot) and I do weekly writing exercises. Sometimes they turn into bi-weekly exercises, when craziness ensues and we both feel the need of an extension, but that's really neither here nor there.

We take turns picking our prompts, most of which have come from ( Read more... )