Birthmarked
Forts
Remember forts?
They turn any ordinary
day into a secret lair.
The constructing is fun
enough, but then you add
the sensation of crawling
inside and seeing that space,
that volume under the dipping
blankets and you have your
own magical realm. Writing
a novel is a lot like building a
fort and holing up inside.
It’s fragile, tippy, dark,
and a little too warm in there.
But it’s all yours.
April Fool’s Day 2022
There’s a spider on your back.
That’s what we always told each
other on April Fool’s Day
when I was a kid. I had
a tiny inchworm in my
hair for real this Tuesday night,
and even after a friend
removed it for me, I kept
expecting to feel the bug
dropping down my neck.
Still do.
Ladies Lunch
(For Cathy)
Limned in the undersea glow
of the choice, fish-tank table
at the DLC, we meet
to swap news or secrets or
maybe truths. We dispel our
mothers, invoke our children,
compare mittens. What do I
want in a real friend, really?
Someone less heartless than I.
One clear-sighted and pensive,
who wields both hammer and pen,
who calms her anxious student,
who breathes French toute seule, and paints
cabinets blue. For me’s the friend
who respects hibernation
and stealth, who nudges me toward
my black fears and… Continue reading
Fast and Far
Twice lately I’ve come across a certain African proverb, first in Cory Booker’s comments during last week’s Democratic presidential candidates’ debate, and a couple days later in a New Hampshire coffee shop on a tip jar. The proverb states, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
I’m finding this wisdom resonates with me. Since I first heard it, this adage has already applied to running errands and marriage. I’ve decided that it also applies to writing, at least for me.
On… Continue reading
Why to Write in the Near Future
“The near future” sounds like a new verb tense, like the past or the pluperfect, but to me it means a writing time somewhere between five minutes and a fifty years from now. My recent novels fall in this time frame, and I’ve been asked why I like to write then.
It’s simple, really. I’m curious about where we’re going as a people. In the Vault of Dreamers series, 50 years from now, a girl from the boxcar community of fictional Doli, Arizona, the poorest zip code in the country,… Continue reading
The Bits Add Up
We worked out the final version of the jacket copy for The Keep of Ages this week, and I redrew the map to send along to the artist. The book is currently with the proofreader. It feels like we’re getting closer and closer to finishing up this project, and I’m excited about it coming out in August. Four months! That’s not so long from now!
We also had an hour of sunshine here in Connecticut for the first time in weeks, and that’s worth celebrating!