The Right Fit

I like finding signs in life. It pleases me when the cosmos give me a hint that things are aligned, or not. A year ago today, I designated September 23 as “Manuscript Pitch Day.” It would have been Noah’s 25th birthday and I took the day off from work. The day was to be devoted to sending my manuscript to the world, in hopes of publication. I’d long prepared for this day: revising,...

Odd Day, Even Year

Like a birthday, wedding anniversary or any important date, the anniversary of Noah's death is one we note. It's on my electronic calendar as a recurring date, The Day Noah Died, as if I really need reminding. It is on our wall photo calendar with a picture of him and the words, Noah's Day on February 27. He died in 2006, an even year just after the end of the winter Olympics in Torino. Eight...

Poking the Wound

One of my classmates in my online writing class mentioned a book she thought I'd like to read, Far from the Tree by Andrew Solomon and I'm pleased that she did. The book is about parents, children and how their identities are wrapped around one another. His focus is on parents with children who are not "vertical"or similar to their parents. He writes about kids who are deaf, dwarfs, have autism,...

A Week of Writing

When writers start to seek publication for their work, we're told that rejection is something we must be able to accept. It is a reality of the trade. I, too, have learned that rejection is more frequent than acceptance. That's just numbers, there are a lot of writers and not as many places for writing to be published. Yet, it is still (always) painful and no one likes receiving an email that...

Writer, Reporter or Author?

Earlier this week I took PTO from work and dedicated much to the day to watching a thunderstorm roll in from Lake Michigan and writing/re-writing parts of my memoir. As it thundered and rained, I thought about being at home to write and how much pleasure having uninterrupted time to write gives me. I'm lucky though, I write for a living in the field of public relations. I write profiles of...