Waking up in the middle of the night, thirsty.
The clink of ice cubes, the smoothness of water down your parched throat.
The air vent blowing on you: chilly now.
Climbing into a bed full of warm girl.
Best. Thing. Ever.

Originally published at Words Words Words. Please leave any comments there.

I don’t like doing convention reports because I suck at them.  I don’t like mentioning people, because I know I’ll forget some and then I’ll feel bad.  But I need to say a few things at least:  First, it’s a great convention-old school.  Second, they took really good care of me (and, so far as I could tell, the other guests) including getting me a ( Read more... )

On my recent trip I drove from Minnesota, to Iowa, to Missouri, to Kansas, to Oklahoma, to Texas, to Arkansas, to Tennessee, to Kentucky, to Virginia, to Maryland, to Pennsylvania, and in all that driving, there was never a point where I said to myself, “Wow.  Drivers in this state are --.”  Until I hit New Jersey.  Good grief.  What is wrong with ( Read more... )

I want to make it clear that this is NOT MY FAULT.  My friend @Jenphalian held a gun to my head and MADE me do this.  AGAINST MY WILL.

Anyway, there’s a new, um, thing on my homepage, available for free download.  Any complaints should be addressed to her.

Originally published at Words Words Words. Please leave any comments there.

This is from my daughter, Toni: “See what I did there?”

Originally published at Words Words Words. Please leave any comments there.

This happened at this year’s Viable Paradise, I believe on Friday.

Me: Teresa, have you ever noticed that knitting is a lot like literary criticism?

TNH (staring): Yes, but how does a non-knitter know that?

Me: I just assumed.

Originally published at Words Words Words. Please leave any comments there.

This was my second year teaching at the writer’s workshop Viable Paradise on Martha’s Vineyard, MA.  I have no idea how to talk about it.  I mean, there’s only so many times you can say, “Holy crap, wow!” before it gets old.  But, holy crap, wow.

I can’t mention the students by name, because I’ll leave someone out, and that would be wrong.  But, ( Read more... )

They knew what they were fighting for.

It seems that the reason you walk into the hail of bullets and canister shot is for the guy next to you; it’s a combination of not being willing to lose respect in his eyes, and feeling like you owe him.   But what makes you go forward into your second battle, after you’ve been through one already?  How can ( Read more... )

First of all, in case some of you were wondering, “totes” is not a word.  Well, okay, when used in the sense of, “He totes his piano over to the cliff and drops it,” then yes, it totes is.  But it should be obvs that that is not the usage I’m talking about.  I’m talking about internet speak,  I know some of you think it’s adorbs, but you’re wrong.

( Read more... )

Just back from a weekend trip to Gettysburg with jenphalian, TNH, and PNH, and it was amazing and my head is still spinning.  I’ll probably do another post once I’ve processed some of it.

It started Friday night and the NHs, where we watched the movie “Gettysburg,” which remains a favorite of mine.  Saturday morning we headed for Pennsylvania.

We ( Read more... )