Doe Branch Ink is a lovely writers retreat in the North Carolina Blue Ridge, hiking trails, a stream, nice little waterfall, lots of fall color, terrific food! and desks with good views.   Last fall I posted often here about leading a writing-and-critiquing week at Doe Branch Ink; I loved it, and so I'm doing […] Read More

  You need Adobe Flash Player to watch this video. Download it from Adobe.   Upgrade to Flash Player 10 for improved playback performance. Upgrade Now or More Info. close I owe it all to Manuel, the salsa instructor, and Lena, the handwriting analyst. Last week I was teaching fiction writing at Rancho La Puerta […] Read More

Doing a mountain hike plus three exercise classes in the morning. Teaching fiction writing in the afternoon. Hanging in and having fun. More later. Read More

 From Randee Russell Bieler, who wrote the Oscar-nominated short film Graffiti  as well as the short story collection Bombs.  She is self-publishing her novel Quilt, the story of a slave mother in the American South, and three contemporary mothers.     Quilt, Book 1 is in a holding pattern now, waiting for the final proof read. […] Read More

    Vanished fairy posts and a strange hiatus: an alien force hacked in and deleted  some of my blog posts, including the recent tales of fairy hunting, also blocking any comments on those posts.  Among the items sent in while I was fending off the now-defeated  invasion is this photo from Lynne Wogan.  She shot this picture of a fairy drawing and it turned up […] Read More

From Randee Russell Bieler, who wrote the Oscar-nominated short film Graffiti.  She is self-publishing her novel Quilt, the story of a slave mother in the American South, and three contemporary mothers.     Progress report:  Poised to launch the Kindle edition. The manuscript is now with an editor for a spell-check.  When that’s done, I […] Read More

    Carolyn Parkhurst struts her stuff. Brava to this New York Times Best-Selling Novelist!  Order your own Parkhurst for Pulitizer pendant todoay. And thanks to Erica Eisdorfer for sharing.     Read More

You may have run across that TV show Hoarders: Buried Alive on TLC, the one where a therapist helps someone dig out of their junk-packed rooms.   Most Americans seem to wrestle with clutter these days, at least judging by the number of businesses and magazine articles devoted to solving the problem. Hoarding goes beyond messiness to, […] Read More

From Randee Russell Bieler, formerly of Raleigh, now of Malibu:      Amazing, the resilience of fear.  I went away for a week, a long overdue family vacation, and four days in, I had  forgotten all the positive things I have figured out  about self-publishing this book.  Why is fear my default  position?  It really […] Read More

It's a thrilling feeling when the wave grabs hold of the board, and it rockets forward, no more paddling needed.  I enjoyed that experience for several seconds at a time Saturday before toppling sideways into the water.     My first surfing lesson was at 9 o'clock, before the strong sun and the big crowds […] Read More