Thaw

A few years ago, my shoulder froze. At the time, I said I’d write about it someday but I haven’t, not until now. Now, my other shoulder is acting up, the right one, the one that helps me move my dominant hand and that’s, you know, alarming. A frozen shoulder is a very strange thing. […]

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Ah, 2018. As the year comes to a close I’m considering what it’s meant for me. I’ll remember it as the one during which my husband and I found our forever-home, where my mother nearly died the day after we moved in (but didn’t, thank the stars!).  It’ll also be the year that I got up […]

Putting Down Roots

When J. and I first moved into this house, as autumn crept into winter, we started feeding the birds and thinking about gardens. As soon as the weather cooperated, we carved out a small area of grass, ordered some soil and, as they say in England, got stuck in. We bought a selection of native […]

Motherly Advice

I’m back where I started. Staring down the bumpy road of an unfinished draft. My next novel – the big, fat manuscript that my agent says doesn’t work (which, by the way, I didn’t update you on, dear reader, after informing you I’d sent it, my ego too bruised, I suppose. Instead, I got on […]

What I Had To Lose

When I was in my mid-20s, tired of toiling seemingly aimlessly at 6 a.m. timed writings every morning before leaving for my 9 to 5 job, I took a creative writing course. I’d published a bit of poetry and a few personal essays and done some freelance journalism, but I wanted to do what felt […]