icon caret-left icon caret-right instagram pinterest linkedin facebook twitter goodreads question-circle facebook circle twitter circle linkedin circle instagram circle goodreads circle pinterest circle

Blog and Newsletters

Writing Block in China - Guest Blog by Morgan Sheehan-Bubla

Exercising in the Park - Picture by Fred Ranaudo
I’m a writer with an almost three year old. Lately I’ve been the mom of a sick almost three year old. I sometimes sit down to write, but mostly stare at the computer without doing much of anything before being pulled away by some sort of child emergency.

“Mommy! I is hitting  Read More 
1 Comments
Post a comment

RACHEL MADDOW: DRIFTING

I couldn’t wait to see Rachel Maddow when she came to Mt. Holyoke College this month. I was one of the first 100 people to reserve a ticket; a very modest $5 secured my place in general seating. She felt like an old friend coming home. Only Rachel didn’t know she was an old  Read More 
2 Comments
Post a comment

WHAT YOGA TEACHERS DO AFTER THE LAST NAMASTE

Yoga by lake Atitlan
Have you ever wondered what yoga teachers do after all the students leave class and the teachers are left in a great big studio? Well sometimes they become eight years old again and they play. One year at a writing and yoga retreat in Guatemala, I was Charles MacInerney’s yoga assistant. His inner  Read More 
Be the first to comment

Hachiko: A story of loyalty and devotion - Guest blog by Lesléa Newman

Lesléa with Nico, an Akita who looks very much like Hachiko.
Lesléa Newman is the author of 60 books including A Letter to Harvey Milk, Nobody's Mother, Hachiko Waits, Write from the Heart, The Boy Who Cried Fabulous, The Best Cat in the World, and Heather Has Two Mommies. She is a faculty mentor at Spalding University’s brief residency MFA in Writing program.

Sometimes, as my friend Patricia MacLachlan, author of Sarah, Plain and Tall, likes to say, if a writer is very lucky, a story comes along and taps her on the shoulder.
On day I felt a tap and turned around. I saw a paw. A very large paw. It belonged to Hachiko, the most  Read More 
Be the first to comment

Sunday afternoon at the general store

The drum beat of my writing life, the members of the Great Darkness, read our hearts out at Elmer’s Store in Ashfield, Massachusetts. You never know if people will show up on a warm Sunday afternoon just to hear us read, but they did, in a crush of feel-good vibes. Most of us  Read More 
Be the first to comment

How Not to Write all Day

First, I read a small news article about dryer lint, in which a reporter tested a product that alleged to suck link out of inaccessible places in the dryer and how important this was because dryers catch on fire due to a build-up of lint. So I have a choice of writing, or going  Read More 
1 Comments
Post a comment

Pentre Ifan

The German translation of Now & Then has just been published, which is not a surprise to me since I knew it was coming. But the cover? Now that was a surprise. I was expecting the cover that I had seen about nine months ago. It had been a lovely cover that captured the magic  Read More 
1 Comments
Post a comment

Guest Blog by Donna Friess, Ph.D , The Magical Classroom: 6th Graders Who Won’t Leave and Two Big Dogs

“Foster” by Donna Friess
Donna L. Friess, PhD is an author, professor, life coach and a fan of service dogs that teach young children to read. She is my guest this month and I’m glad she’s here. Donna is also an artist, as you can see by the sensitive portrait of Foster the dog. Please check  Read More 
2 Comments
Post a comment

Funny Movies for Joey

I asked my friends on Facebook to name their funniest movies so that I could make a list and send it to a friend who is recovering from spinal surgery. I know I could find a list of comedies nicely compiled somewhere out there in internet land, but I wanted personal recommendations. And people  Read More 
Be the first to comment

Traveling in China

A day at the temple
Stay tuned for a travel essay about China. With a background in Anthropology and Psychology, my interests tend toward the social and micro-level. I'm fascinated that an entire country can conquer toilet training by age 12-18 months (although it's more complicated than that). And I never would have imagined the level of fashion that  Read More 
Be the first to comment