The other day, I was meeting with a friend who is a stay-at-home mom, as I once was. She was lamenting how hard it is to find time to write with all the responsibilities of home and children. I passed on a piece of advice a friend said to me when I was lamenting something...
Tag: children
Raising Myself
My daughter’s been waiting for this post for a long time. I keep threatening to write about how odd it is to be “raising myself.” Given that tomorrow is Mother’s Day, this seems the perfect time to explore this. It’s not just that my daughter is following in my footsteps and seeking a career in...
Giving Your Most Precious Gift
Today I had the pleasure of attending a fundraiser for one of my favorite local charities. As always, I was in awe not only of the stories told by the families who benefit from the services, but by those of the volunteers and staff who shared how much their work means to them. We are...
Are We Doomed Through Censorship to Repeat Our Mistakes?
Not to wax political, but it’s almost impossible for me not to talk about censorship this week. As many of my author friends are blogging about Banned Books Week, I’ve been taking note of a different type of censorship. Recently, high school students and teachers in several Denver schools walked out to protest a school...
Can One Encounter with Art Change a Life?
When I was twelve, my mother took my brother and me to see a performance of Jesus Christ Superstar. She’d escorted us to children’s theater productions before, but this was my first time seeing a truly “grown-up” play, and I was utterly transformed. I was a church-going kid, but until that night, I had never...
I’m Sorry, But I’m Not Embarrassed
In my industry, there’s been a lot of talk about Ruth Graham’s article in Slate suggesting that adults should be embarrassed to read young adult titles. Never mind the slights to YA authors, let’s look at what else she says: She argues that adults should challenge themselves with a higher form of literature and leave...
Art Amidst the Tumbleweeds
Just returned from a school visit with my good friend and fellow author Natasha Wing. We drove nearly four hours through sagebrush and tumbleweeds to reach the small town of Eads, Colorado, where we were greeted with much fanfare. The children and the art teacher had made posters and hung them throughout the school and...
Can the Arts Better Lives and Give Hope?
I asked my friend, Rose Moon, why she thought artists were important. “Artists are the storytellers of each generation,” she said. If it weren’t for Rose, the at-risk teens she works with at HalfMoon Arts in Fort Collins, Colorado might never have a voice. In providing art instruction and a safe haven, she is also...