How We Make Memories: My fourth grade teacher, Miss Pastor, at Hillside Elementary was a stern woman. Her reprimands were shaming, and her glare could turn a kid's legs to Jell-o. I shook inside when she called my name in her slow, drawn-out, "I know what you're doing" tone of voice. Since I was a chatty daydreamer, I gave her plenty of opportunity to call my name. Miss Pastor isn't … [Read more...]
First Time Novelist at 63 – Belva Plain
Grandma wrote bestsellers Have you ever felt you were too old to start that novel you've always wanted to write? Belva Plain was 63 years old when her first novel, a romantic epic titled Evergreen, was published in 1978 by Dell. What's more, her debut novel stayed on the NYT best-seller list for 41 weeks in hardcover, and another 20 weeks in paperback, and was later made into a … [Read more...]
Rod McKuen Altered Book
King of Kitsch? Former US Poet Laureate said it was irrelevant to even speak of Rod McKuen as a poet. Pulitzer Prize-winning critic called McKuen's work gooey schmaltz. Newsweek magazine called him the King of Kitsch. In Arts and Entertainment Fads, Frank W. Hoffmann called McKuen's poetry "verse that drawled in country cadences from one shapeless line to the next." Despite the criticism, … [Read more...]
How to Cope with Writer’s Self Doubt
I would start writing, and then say, "This is no good. No good at all." Does that sound familiar? In an interview in April's The Writer, playwright Christopher Durang explains how he coped with those nagging feelings that all writers get: After my mother passed way, I got a commission from the Phoenix Theatre... At the time, I said I was going to write a play in which everyone in the world was … [Read more...]
Flying your Freak Flag over 50
Non-conformist 70s fashion: The boho-chic, hippie look in the 1970s was non-conformist anti-fashion: free flowing, romantic, artsy and unique, and often involved sewing, especially patches and embroidery. Anything handmade or "natural" was coveted. As a young teen at that time, I loved to shop at Joe's Army Navy Store and the Salvation Army. I wore wire-rimmed eyeglasses with pink-tinted lenses … [Read more...]
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