My husband laughed last night when I said, “It’s so much work just being alive.” I was describing my day, in which I’d awakened with a list in my head of all the things I was going to get done, and by the end of the day, only half of them were completed. In the...
Tag: muse
So You Say You’re Not an Artist
You say you’re not an artist, then you cut a perfect leaf into the top of the pie crust. You say you’re not creative, but you make up puns on the spot. You say you’re not inspired, then you carefully write the perfect encouragement into that graduation card. You say you’re not inventive, but your...
No Great Story Ever Started with “I Think I’ll Take a Nap”
A friend of mine recently attended an afternoon writing panel on which I was speaking about Strong Women in Children’s Literature. She’d had a busy morning. She’d worked out and followed that with a heavy lunch with her family. She was tired and tempted to skip my panel in favor of a nap. After the...
An Open Apology to My Creative Self
I’m sorry for the times I pushed you to move forward when you weren’t ready. I’m sorry for the times I believed people who said that in order to do your best work, you had to starve. I’m sorry for the times I drove you to the point of exhaustion and frustration, and for the...