Tag Archives: fiction
Learning In The Time Of Covid (Coursera Wesleyan U edition)
My book-recs arrive from: author-friends; writers I heart on social media; my 3 sisters/avid-readers; always Claire’s recs on WORD BY WORD. Thank you, Claire. You suggest so many writing worlds that shouldn’t, ever, be missed. In this basically word-of-mouth vein, … Continue reading
Did I Or Didn’t I
UPDATE: Coupled with new findings this week in Santa Clara County, where the medical examiner confirmed that California had the earliest deaths from COVID-19 — on Feb. 6 and Feb. 17 — the new information suggests a national epidemic was … Continue reading
Never Forget (Fav Coffee Mug Edition)
Yours in coping, PB
Birthday Alarms
I was wide awake before Monday’s morning alarm chimed, plotting what errands I would accomplish, in what order– when my brain was hit with edits to my novel-in-progress. I threw back the covers and staggered for the dining room table, … Continue reading
Hunting
230am, the dog’s nose a wet Q-tip on my ear, his drunk-carny’s breath. I rise, stumble to the patio door, let him out. Waiting, I realize my right foot is wet. I panic: blood? Cat vomit. I stumble to the … Continue reading
REVISION
I finished my novel. All the writing, beach walks, and kitten-breaks seem to have paid off. I’m finished. Let the revising begin. Actually I’ve been revising all along. I adopted a habit of backing up a few chapters, reading/revising them … Continue reading
The New Now
I closed my laptop and asked my waitress, Lila, why she was clearly having a rough day. She started talking to me about her mom. I almost dropped my glass of lemonade. Lila’s mom rivals mine and I didn’t think … Continue reading
Coffee Kick & Go (Tremble Edition)
It may be poetry month in the USA, but here at PB Writes the author was up late revising her MG novel, prepping it for the agent requesting a read. This sweet, cool and sunny spring morning–after creating pancakes-secreted-with-carrot-puree for the boy, feeding … Continue reading
O Summer!
I’ve been quiet since May, after a brief, powerful writer’s retreat. I’ve been busy this summer with what the retreat inspired: Writing. Revising. Writing. Revising a new short story, one screaming for edits of late. It’s almost ready for submission. Compiling … Continue reading
The Women’s National Book Association
I was made aware of the WNBA/LA thanks to my middle grade writing mentor, Kathryn Fitzmaurice (ask me if I am lucky to have her as my mentor and you will hear amplified hell yeah’s). She gave one of this … Continue reading
Walking to Floats (SoCal Edition)
Rose Parade Floats Viewing, January 2nd: I walked my son several blocks down a typically—for Pasadena—vast and nicely swept boulevard to another major boulevard (wider than the Rio Grande and as sungleamy in our December heatwave) mobbed by people like us … Continue reading
December Whinny
Sitting on the patio at Peddler’s Fork, alone out here as it’s a SoCal pre-Christmas bit of chilly, i.e., 60 degrees, way too cold for the cycling clan packing the tables indoors, brrr, but perfect for me as I’m the … Continue reading
Quote For The Weekend: Early Edition (Due To Colds, Flu, Pediatric Dental ER’s, Close-Family Close Calls, Going Away For The Weekend & A Unicycle That Still Needs Mastering…)
Try, fail. Try again, fail better. —Samuel Beckett In Sunday’s typically heat-knit twilight, I glance up from pinching pie crust into old-fashioned, part curtains patterned in fat cherries. A palomino trots down my street, its rider guiding with the blithe … Continue reading
Quote For The Weekend
In order to write the book you want to write, in the end you have to become the person you need to become to write that book. ― Junot Díaz Today I am a 56 year old academic who wrote only … Continue reading
And There Is A Storm And Here Is A Cat
Locust After the midnight bell, the battered book closed, flame of the inherited candle snuffed, we recover from stifling night, erasing radical dream-dyes we will never share (though not because we are secretive) and we remember I’ve just returned from … Continue reading
Links Time
It’s been a week of discovering useful blog links. I’ve hopped from link to link and then some, pausing only to drop the boy off at summer camp, pick him up, play Batman & Dinosaurs, fix dinner, twist myself into … Continue reading
Deep Summer Checkpoint
Two summers ago I wrote: I create escape beneath my yard’s wind- bent gazebo, books on spread gingham, the shrunk house I dragged into our shade, ticking stove, stranger’s voice in the toy wall phone he refuses. Create with a … Continue reading
Author Interview #1: Bridget Hoida And SO LA
Introducing Bridget Hoida, whose first novel, So LA, is due out in bookstores June 20th. I happen to personally know that Bridget is brilliant, but I can also tell you without a hint of bias that she writes about Los Angeles with … Continue reading
Wrinkly Time, Melamine
I recently discovered that anything made of melamine, i.e., my preschooler’s plates and bowls, should not be tossed into the dishwasher. Ever. And if you make a knife cut in melamine? Chances are toxins will seep into your child’s food. … Continue reading
