When I was young and listening in as the adults talked, I heard a common refrain, “Nothing surprises me anymore.” Usually, it referred to any type of behavior or trends with which they disagreed. As a kid, though, I found the expression kind of sad. I mean, surprises were the best thing ever. In my...
Tag: books
Will You Let the Universe Use You?
I ran into a former client from my days as a writer’s coach. She’d self-published a memoir about living with a certain disease. She was telling me all the efforts she’d made to market the book, but it never really caught on, except with the local nurses. She said they recommended her book often and...
Is Your Identity Fixed or Fluid?
In my ongoing efforts to declutter and Feng Shui my house, I got rid of 96 more books in the past week. In the process, I tackled a bookshelf that I have so far mostly avoided, the one containing my massive World War II collection of books that I used as reference while writing seven...
Loving the World Through Story
A while back I was listening to a podcast, or maybe an NPR interview, I’m afraid I can’t remember. The guest speaker said something about stories helping us fall in love with the world again, and that’s all that stuck with me. Not the rest of the interview, not the name of the show, not...
Books Are Not Sacred
I gifted a nonfiction book to a friend I knew she’d like. She texted me to say she was loving it, so much so she’d actually dog-eared a couple of pages so she could come back to them later. I texted back: “Books are not sacred. Dog-ear it, underline it, write in the margins, put...
Passion is Life – Cheers, Dani Rojas
Dani Rojas, a soccer-playing character on the TV show Ted Lasso, is known for his motto, “Football is life!” Dani is a Mexican national playing in England, hence the word “football” rather than soccer. He’s the team optimist, the good guy, the one who reminds everyone else to bring their love of the sport to...
Not All Writers Are Narcissists – Revisted
This post first ran on April 17, 2021 My book club recently reached a full consensus about a book: none of us liked it. In fact, four of the ten chose not to finish reading it. The conversation about the book was entertaining because whenever there’s agreement, people can speak freely, and some of their...
What Change Are You Resisiting?
I’ve been trying a new technique that my holistic lifestyle coach and I have been calling “bookending” my day. As someone who is naturally a bit “wound up,” it’s good for me to ground myself now and then. So, we started by working on a morning routine. Ways to settle into a good mental and...
How 3.5 Book Clubs Helped Me Grow This Year
For most of my life, I avoided invitations to join book clubs. I had way too many books on my “to read” list already. Not to mention all the reading I was doing as research for my work. Then along came the pandemic, and I accidentally found myself in 3.5 book clubs. The first started...
The Art of Making Money (Or Not)
I’m preparing to lead a discussion on the book, It’s Not Your Money, by Tosha Silver, for a local writing organization to which I belong. Money is a constant source of worry, debate, motivation, and frustration for artists of all kinds. How much do we give away for free? How high can we raise our...