change – thebraverypen

All characters welcome (a workshop announcement)

August 3, 2018No Comments

Teaching writing workshops has turned out to be one of the most spellbinding, inspiring, life- and self-changing accidental decisions I have ever made. In my younger, but ever vivid imaginings, my heaps of education would lead me to the blessed shores of a capital-A Academic collegiate theorizing literary dream world. But, I had a much … Continue reading All characters welcome (a workshop announcement)

On wonder

May 28, 2018No Comments

I’m working on my wonder. It needs a bit of a tune-up. My wonder has gone wonky, as it were. The bad things, the overwhelming and seemingly hopeless, tend to take wonder and throw it in the dryer on hot until it shrinks up and forever thereafter fails to cover the proverbial muffin top of … Continue reading On wonder

How do you solve a problem like an over-inflated sense of justice?

April 17, 2018April 18, 2018No Comments

A therapist once told me that I have an over-inflated sense of justice. It lingers as one of the more jarring lessons in stripped-down candor that have slapped me into self-reflection. I was aghast and filled with that particular sort of indignation that runs on embarrassment and shame. It felt wrong, but I was young, … Continue reading How do you solve a problem like an over-inflated sense of justice?

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

April 4, 2018April 5, 2018No Comments

Write to live (or, how not to die)

March 13, 2018April 12, 2018No Comments

I used to watch my writing languish. Literally. Like some lazy do-no-good or a comatose soap opera actor waiting for a brain transplant. My ex, would offer to read something I’d poured myself into, hours of pen and paper, computer screen, and back to pen and paper, the cycle of writing and revising spinning until … Continue reading Write to live (or, how not to die)

You should write a book about that

February 10, 2018No Comments

When I was voted most likely to become an author (at age 10), I had a pretty clear picture in my mind of what that fabulous becoming would look like. Or, at least I could clearly picture myself on the back cover of a book, my book, I could see it in the library, a … Continue reading You should write a book about that