Remembering that terrifying pool party in McKinney, Texas
Last week a grand jury declined to press charges against a former McKinney, Texas police officer who threw a teenage girl to the ground during a pool party raid last […]
Inspiration and Joy at the Vortext Writers’ Conference
I love writers’ conferences. My grandmother bought me a ticket to my very first writer’s conference back when I was in my mid-twenties — her way of both supporting my […]
The Courage to Be Kind
The signboard outside my neighborhood church got my attention: “Does kindness have a chance?” Isn’t that what we’re all wondering these days? Last month’s horrific attacks in Paris staged by […]
Writing, Me, and Carli Lloyd
Earlier this summer, I wrote an essay about that tragic pool party in McKinney, Texas, where police overreacted, with guns drawn, to a complaint from a white mom about noisy […]
My Favorite Family Weekend of the Year
Recently I enjoyed one of my favorite weekends of the year with my family: African Cradle Ethiopian Heritage Camp at Redwood Glen in the Santa Cruz Mountains. People always ask, […]
Women Writers: Apply for a Residency at Hedgebrook!
A few days ago I hit send on my application for a 2016 residency at Hedgebrook, the artistic retreat center for women writers on Whidbey Island in Washington. Last year, […]
My Kids Kind of Helped Me Write an Essay for Redbook
This week I wrote a light-hearted essay about texting with my kids for Redbook. I had so much fun looking through some of the texts we’d exchanged in the last […]
Do Not Delete Your Memoir
This week staff writer Kara Brown published a snarky piece at Jezebel titled Delete Your Memoir. She writes: Go ahead, do it. Drag and drop. Hold down the “delete” […]
The Week of Magical Thinking
I just completed a writing residency through the generosity of the Northwest Playwrights Alliance and Ms. Leticia Lopez, who donated the use of her cute rental home in Walla Walla, […]
For all you writers: the aspiring, the struggling, the enduring
I guess I could call myself an aspiring, a struggling, AND an enduring writer. I haven’t been blogging much (ok, at all) because 2015 is my year to write a […]
