Lately I dream in babies. Almost always they are my own, earlier incarnations of these same beings who, even now–at eighteen, and sixteen, and fourteen–do much to order my day. A week ago it was Emma, suddenly arriving while I visited with a friend who was in the midst of moving house. Boxes and displaced […]
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Naming a child is a pretty big deal. Anyone who has ever done it will say so. Because while a person can change her name legally (someday) if she wants to, I think the process is a genuine and maybe expensive hassle. Meanwhile, she’ll have to live with the name long enough to decide she […]
Read more“I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight.” -Jeremiah 9:24 The Bible tells me that God is kind. This, of course, among a multitude of other qualities that He doesn’t so much possess as He defines by virtue of His existence. (And that is enough to […]
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We are gearing up for a big transition at our house: In less than forty-eight hours, Will will be on his way to Madagascar, and we will be navigating life as a family of five– minus one.This means that there’s lots to do these days, and there’s lots to think about. Around the errands and […]
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http://nintendoenthusiast.com/feature-articles/zombies-on-nintendo-systems-through-the-generations/5490/ I have an excellent imagination. This is a great quality when casting about for a new bit of character development for a novel, but it’s a perfect nightmare when, say, I’ve made the foolish decision to watch The Ring. Yes, I saw it back there in the early 2000’s, on DVD and in the comfort of […]
Read moreOccasionally, I find, there are mornings like these: when it seems best to leave all the windows open because outdoors the sky is an unbroken blue, and the sunlight folds and flashes on the shining backs of leaves that we know now can’t possibly last. Mornings when the wind gusts and then is still again, […]
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I had a happy childhood. That small fact is likely adequate to spoil my hopes of ever being a *good* writer, but there it is. The actual truth is that I had a very happy childhood. That said, I did not own a pair of Nike’s until well into the sixth grade, maybe later, and […]
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The plush frog was a gift sometime during the first year. With a music box embedded in its belly, a fabric-covered pull-string attached to its back, and a loop tied at the top of its head, the frog was the perfect toy to hang in the corner of the crib. I don’t remember how old […]
Read moreA well-known writer got collared by a university student who asked, “Do you think I could be a writer?”“Well,” the writer said, “I don’t know…. Do you like sentences?”The writer could see the student’s amazement. Sentences? Do I like sentences? I am twenty years old and do I like sentences? If he had liked sentences, […]
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“How is your book doing?” she asked me, and I loved the question for the way she worded it: As if the book itself was doing, as if it had agency, a life of its own. As if, left to its own devices in my desk drawer, in my laptop files, it might nonetheless continue […]
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