The Best in Others

My intent was not to post again until September. But an unsolicited email arrived that blew me away...

...reading your writing lights a fire in me that few other writers have been able to kindle. I fear that I will lose a catalyst in my own life if you do not push yourself to get your novel and subsequent work out there.

And another...

I'm here for you to lean on about anything, and I'm fine if you don't lean on me.

No guilt, no judgment, just support. :)

What a gift to have friends like these.

I've been out of touch because of summer busy-ness, but want to say THANK YOU for over-the-top encouragement and unconditional support. 

We don't do this writing work alone. Thank you, for helping light the journey.

(photo from Aleksandar Maćašev's photo gallery)

Kindness

The original post title was Kindness of Strangers, but this kindness was from a friend, not a stranger, and there was no Blanche DuBois tragedy. The kindness is this... how cool to have friends who just let you be... who let you write on their terrace.

Thank you, Peggie. And here's to learning how cool it is to live an hour from Vancouver.

Here's to friendly friends. May we all have the support to do what we're meant to do. The next few weeks will be summer busy-ness, so I won't post until September. Happy writing!

The Other World

Writing helps me feel connected to the world. Grounds me. Helps me feel that I'm doing a good job living this life.

If there's a season for everything, then it's been a season of more endings than I'm used to. Some expected. One very much not. 

To Peter, Dodie, Shera who was supposed to visit next week, my sister's friend Freya... and, yes, our dog Magic, I offer Walt Whitman...  Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes. 

I offer that to the rest of us, too. Let us be good stewards of our universes, including the ones we create in our writing.

...I'm picturing Peter on a porch with a cigar, Dodie curled up with a book of Emerson, Freya is away checking her kids... and Shera reads on the dock with Magic at her side... 

Homeward Unbound

If I were in junior high I'd have an answer to What I Did Over Summer Vacation - found home. The last month has been the East Coast from Massachusetts, New York City, Philadelphia, D.C., the Gulf Coast of Florida, then back to Washington State. Where's home? Massachusetts where I've lived most of my life? This new pacific place? Neither. For me, home travels. Like a good book.

Huh?

A good book takes us on a journey, but the core of the novel keeps us grounded. We might not know where the novel is taking us, but, with good writing and a strong core we know we'll arrive where and how we need to be.

For me, that's home, something inside that keeps me going forward and knowing that, to borrow from John Kabat-Zinn, wherever I go, there I am. And if there's a cafe, a view of the ocean and some family, even better.

Writing-wise, much has happened the last month, starting with two hours of writing most vacation mornings. And how cool that Elana Johnson has taken us on her journey of POSSESSION publication.

It's great to be back. What's your home?

Boldly Ourselves

A few evenings ago, seals were swimming near our apartment. Seals have always made me smile. This week, they called out a better part of me, the bold part that liked seals so much that as a 6th grader I read A Seal Called Andre, wrote the author and asked for materials for a report. The same part that of me that contacted playwright Brian Friel after seeing his version of Fathers and Sons and asked if I could interview him in Ireland for my university senior project. The seals reminded me that it can be natural for me to go boldly forward.

That seal up there makes me smile. It's boldly itself. Like we all could be. What does that mean for me? That I'm becoming boldly excited and playful about querying? Kinda.

Thank you, seals, for the reminder. How about you? How are you boldly yourself?

And, of, course CONGRATULATIONS to author Elana Johnson, on her novel POSSESSION. boldly out this week!

(photo from Mike Baird's Flickr page)

The Character Made Me Do It

This photo is from about a month ago. Snow, mountains... Mt. Baker even had an Easter egg hunt on the ski slopes. I was there to write in the lodge and look at peaks that are the setting for novel #3.

Nope. The main character of novel #2 kept yelling for attention. It was his turn. "Look at me! Look at me!" So I looked. So I polished the draft I thought was resting for a while.


Now I plan to focus on querying novel #2, LUCKY, instead of #1. Unexpected. But it feels right. Lucky, the the eponymous main character, usually gets his way.

Huh? Do your characters sometimes call the shots?

(in answer to The Happy Whisk, the  photo is from my iPhone)

In Honor of a Friend

The Reverend Peter J. Gomes was a friend. He was my partner's academic adviser at Harvard Divinity School, then his mentor, and finally a friend to both of us. He not only preached at our wedding, he offered his house for the reception. Peter published many collections of sermons and wrote best-selling books about the Bible, including The Good Book: Reading the Bible with mind and heart, which informed the nonprofit I founded, Our Spirit, to help gay/lesbian youth feel good about themselves despite religious fundamentalists.

Monday February 28th, two hours after Peter died of complications from a stroke, I got the news while in line at a cafe. In honor of Peter I ordered their hardiest red wine. Kent and I went straight to our seats and didn't talk much. Peter was unabashedly himself. So, with the wine and my laptop, I unabashedly - finally after several months - contacted a published author who said she'd help with my agent search when the time was right. My friends had been urging me to hurry up and query. Peter had urged me to get on with it. So, finally, I did.

Thank you, Peter, for friendship. For laughter and cigars on your porch. Thank you for being unabashedly yourself and for helping the rest of us move in that direction.

Photo: Peter toasting Kent (far right) and me at our wedding reception.

More about Peter:  60 Minutes, New Yorker, New York Times