Yes, this is a picture of actor/activist George Takei holding my children’s book, The No-No Boys! I heard him speak recently at the National Speakers Association convention. When he came out on stage, everyone expected him to talk about his role as Mr. Sulu on Star Trek or his pop culture persona or his enormous...
Tag: blog
Love ‘Em or Leave ‘Em
I love people who laugh at their own jokes. The harder they laugh, the better. Why shouldn’t we take enjoyment from our own creativity? Why create anything if it doesn’t bring us pleasure? I love people who sing loudly and badly in church. Why? Because they are more concerned with giving praise than they are...
Sam I Am
Sam Smith was the big winner at the Grammy Awards this year. “Before I made this record,” he said, “I was doing everything to try and get my music heard. I tried to lose weight and I was making awful music. It was only until I started to be myself that the music started to...
Do You Believe in Magic?
Tomorrow, a houseful of relatives arrive. Friends have asked me how I can stand to have 13 people in my house and if it doubles my stress at the holidays. The answer to that is yes, a bit, but so what? Christmas, to me, is about giving. Isn’t that what we tell our children? Wouldn’t...
Are We Artists or Salesmen?
There’s never been a more interesting or a more challenging time to be an artist. So many new avenues have opened up to us and choosing the arts as a profession is no longer looked down upon (at least not as heavily as it once was). But now, with so many of us working or...
You Have to Own Your Art
Is it really this simple? You announce to the world you are an artist, a dancer, a singer, and, voila, you are. Yes and no. I was both terrified and exhilarated when I quit my low-paying job 22 years ago to become a writer. I didn’t tell many people at first. I had to figure...
Is This a Good Title?
When it comes to creativity, why do some things come so easily and others seem so very hard? Why do certain great ideas seem to pop out of nowhere, while others take months to form? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a scientific formula we could apply to ideation: get 8.4 hours of sleep,...
Blessings for a Workaholic
When we were newly married, my husband took a job at a Fortune 500 company and stepped quickly onto the fast track. I made him promise he’d never let his work interfere with our homelife, that he’d never become a workaholic. And he hasn’t. Ironically, I’m the one who now fits that description. Lately I...
You’re Only a Starving Artist if You Choose to Be
I often find myself reassuring friends whose children want to go into the arts that their kids will not starve, nor will they ask for support for the rest of their lives. I know dozens of artists – writers, singers, filmmakers, visual artists, actors – and none of them are starving. Few of them ask...
Bursts of Brilliance for a Creative Life
Few things excite us more than a great idea, especially when it’s one of our own. Watch a person’s body language, listen to the passion in their voice, watch the light fill their eyes when they say those magic words, “I have an idea,” or “Listen to this” or “You know what we need to...