Blog
Word Sketches — Images created with words
Have you ever tried to draw an image of something in your head using colored pencils, crayons, or watercolors? You must understand then the effort, creativity, and courage necessary to bring those images to the paper. I hope the words I sketch here will help you see the images I am creating for you. Even better, you may be inspired to create word sketches of your own!
The Painful Chiseling Out Of Marbled Beliefs
In my newsletter “Word Sketches,” I have been updating my readers about my struggles to write the story of my mother’s life versus my own memoir. Here are more details about that effort.
Back in 2014, I participated in NaNoWriMo, a national race to write 50,000 words during the very-short-because-of short-because-of-the-holidays month of November. Being an overachiever, not only did I surpass that goal, but I also did a Writer’s Digest challenge to write a poem a day inspired by a prompt during the same month.
Undertow: How Life’s Undercurrents Can Pull Us Where We May Not Want to Go
Charlene Edge and I met over six years ago at a small social event where I learned her memoir, Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International had been published a few months before. What intrigued me most about Charlene and her book was that she wrote about an organization my brother had been a part of for many years and refused to recognize as a cult.
To Divulge or Not to Divulge Secrets: The Questions I Ask Myself
Secrets. Who doesn’t carry the burden of a secret or two, terrified of letting them spill on the floor and break open in front of the world? Oh, how we protect ourselves from the prying eyes and morbid curiosity of strangers, yes —but also our neighbors, acquaintances, and loved ones!
I’ve been pondering lately, in private and with writing friends, how much, how wide, how deep the disclosure of secrets is appropriate in our work.