Magical Memoir Moments
My Dear God: How I Feel About Writing Another Book
Writing books is hard work. After writing, revising, publishing, and touring with a memoir, 2011-2014, I said I didn’t think I wanted to write another book. The only exception would be if I felt called again. When my friend Marilyn McEntyre asked if I would join her and others on a panel discussion at the…
The Blessed Ties of Memoir: And A Chance at TWO Book Giveaways
Dairy maids don’t often make it into literature. A.A. Milne placed one in a poem about the King’s breakfast. And Thomas Hardy wrote The Milkmaid about a young woman disappointed in love. My favorite meditation on Vermeer’s The Milkmaid is this one by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre’s book In Quiet Light. It starts this way: There…
Beautiful Sentences: A Different Kind of American Idol Contest
About 200 people visit this website each week–not a great crowd, but one that is slowly growing. Each time I log in to the dashboard to begin writing another post, I get another set of statistics that informs me which post is most popular and what search terms people are using that brings my blog…
Memoir and the Beautiful Sentence: Lenten Season Thoughts
My Lenten season reading this year includes Marilyn Chandler McEntyre’s extended meditation on the prayer of St. Patrick. I have written about Marilyn in previous blogs and have read several books of her poetry. My appreciation continues to grow for her spiritual and literary wisdom as I read more of her work. Christ, My Companion…
Conversations with Four Wise Women Authors
I traveled to California for the Fetzer Institute to visit with board members, meet with a colleague at the Skoll Foundation, and attend a fundraiser for Youth for Environmental Sanity (YES!), the Purpose Prize Award ceremonies/ Encore Careers Summit. As snow was flying in Kalamazoo, I was watching the sun rise over the bay in…
A Second Workshop on Spiritual Autobiography
Tomorrow I lead a small group of colleagues in a workshop much like the one I taught at my church several months ago. I will again use the Marilyn Chandler McEntyre’s essay published in Weavings. But this time I will also talk a little about Tristine Rainer’s book,Your Life as Story, which I am enjoying…