Coping with my mild case of obsessive compulsive disorder has long been one of the announced topics of this blog.  It is after all an anxiety disorder, and anxiety can truly get in the way of boldness, whether it’s actually experienced as normal fear or instead takes the less healthy form of repeating thoughts and/or […] Read More

      A nice tip from an old Bottom Line Personal: Finance writer Dyan Machan brings together success secrets from a bunch of notable successful people. "Diane von Furstenberg, founder of a hugely successful clothing company (DVF), reminds herself that her mother survived a Nazi concentration camp.  Compared with that, what is there to […] Read More

Have you made a resolution?   I'm working on this, not quite finished.  For me, a good resolution needs  two parts: the big goal and the action item. A few years ago,  Part One was: follow the will of God. Part Two was: find out what that is by meditating 20 minutes a day without fail. That year […] Read More

When I was a senior at Duke, I took a wonderful writing course from Helen Bevington. On the first day of class, she told us on she was open to reading anything but Christmas poems. Being of a somewhat oppositional nature, I took it as a challenge to write a Christmas poem that would interest […] Read More

/Solstice celebration was today at lunch for four “weird women” in Raleigh’s Pullen Park. We stood in a big round gazebo around a little potted tree and held what amounted to a nature-lover’s mini-peer-group therapy session.   I left feeling shook loose and inspired. One of the highlights was the reading of a bold poem, […] Read More

On a screwy day (of the sort when I keep making dumb little mistakes), I’ve never been sure of the best strategy: plunge ahead or freeze. Yesterday was a bit like that (though not the worst.) I went to a two hour Christmas get-together, the sort of thing where you get there on time. I […] Read More

The change: last night I made a vat of fudge. Ordinarily I don't cook. And this is not an overstatement. If I ever made fudge before, it was more than forty years ago and utilized a mix and an onsite advisor. But the hint of a whim to do this touched me a few days […] Read More

Every time I take a slight break from blogging, I find that the first time back takes more energy. And I’m slightly hesitant. There’s no good reason for this other than the power of inertia. A moving object once stopped needs a wee boost to get going again. Providing one’s-self this boost is a mini-version […] Read More

  On short pieces:   One-time flat fee of $95 for a critique of up to 40  pages for manuscripts received by January 1.   Fiction or nonfiction; excerpt, book proposal, short fiction, or article.    You'll receive a report on structure, use of language, pacing, any needs for tightening, missing pieces, suspense and "engaging-ness." I write a summary of […] Read More

The office upstairs from mine opened up yesterday. (Sad to say, Greenpeace is moving.)   But the change opens a space in this charming, historic 1910 “office house” at the downtown edge of Raleigh’s Oakwood, a few blocks from the Capitol.   The building, called Free Range Studio, currently contains four writers, one small art […] Read More