When it’s your brother who’s running for office, you’ll do all sorts of bold and marginally undignified things. Like standing beside a highway in a startling coat for four hours, waving and grinning at every single car that passes. That’s how strongly I feel about Harry Payne being elected to be a NC Appeals Court […] Read More

Last week was a mini-bonus life in a house full of writers with good food and good views: the writing workshop at Doe Branch Ink in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains: To give full credit, the shot above of the group from the third floor landing was taken by novelist/site manager Nick Roberts. The ones […] Read More

Next to the last full day of the writers’ retreat at Doe Branch Ink in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I’ve fallen into the peaceful and richly interesting routine of this extra tucked-in life. We are six writers on these 50 acres with three rustic houses and lots of desks with views. We’re all getting work […] Read More

This is the kind of extra life that is like a surprise package. I agreed to run a writing group at a house deep in the North Carolina mountains. Miles from a paved road. I showed up. And now I’m three days into an eight-day experience far from my regular world. It will be a […] Read More

I’m working so hard this week getting ready to go away for a week to a Doe Branch Ink writers’ retreat that I haven’t had time post. Bold Bonus Life Tip #5: Building in extra lives, even only week long, takes a lot of tying up of loose ends in advance. Back to you soon […] Read More

It takes a bit of chutzpah to keep a sense of humor in some professions. Take anesthesiology, for one example. Unless you’re one of the 5.3 million people who have already heard this, then you must click and listen, for the smile value. [youtube WOrjcLJ2IE0 nolink] These guys demonstrate Bonus Life Tip #4: one can […] Read More

Think you’re too old to get a whole new life? Have a look at this week’s New York magazine, which honors nine current high achievers who are in their nineties or over a hundred. (In their hundreds?) [youtube Zzs8Ov2p-Rc nolink] For example, composer Elliott Carter has published 14 new pieces of music since he turned […] Read More

Here’s a provocative and bracing quote sent by Mamie of Can I Do It? Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.– Katherine Mansfield Now, taking this literally, the hardest thing on earth for me […] Read More

My own most recent “extra life” was, as regular readers here know, the 18 days I spent in August as a New Yorker. I was apartment-sitting on the Upper West Side. For a year and a half, I’d had in mind the goal of enjoying a spell as a Manhattanite. It was a 60th birthday […] Read More

Maybe you build and repair your own cars and refrigerators and such, but not me. I like instant oatmeal. Processed foods. Processed plumbing. Things already done. But now and then in the case of my familiar trusty sits-with-me-all-day computer, I get the idea I can fix a problem myself. Now and then I can and […] Read More