Because I (and others) consider my novel-in-progress to be a transgressive book involving transgressive sex, I was very struck when I received a comment about this sort of thing in an email conversation with my friend George. (I should mention that George, a visual artist and poet, doesn’t like capital letters.) “i consider (Updike) to […] Read More

If there were ever a person who went her own way, it was the famously abrupt Georgia O’Keefe. The Smithsonian Journeys blog has a charming story about an encounter with the painter: “The Day I Met Georgia O’Keefe.” The boldest individual involved is the author who tells of the day she approached O’Keefe’s house in […] Read More

When I started my first full-time job after college as a news reporter, I met at the NC Legislature a red-headed woman who was always there working on behalf of good causes. The League of Women Voters is the one I recall from back then, 39 years ago. Her name was Betty Ann Knudsen, and […] Read More

I went to a birthday party this weekend where the adult being so honored didn’t want to come into the house and greet the waiting party. And he knew this get-together was going to happen. So he stood around in the driveway, then on the porch, for quite a while. The buffet spread was out–and […] Read More

Just when I get blogging down and have ever-so-confusedly waded into Facebook, here comes the rolling thunder of Twitter. It has been around. But never so publicly and famously as in recent weeks, or so it seems to me. Months ago I made some move to sign up for it, but have done nothing with […] Read More

Dealing with feelings of shame can be divided into steps that help mightily to defuse the whole miserable state of mind. This thinking comes from a book noted in an earlier post here: Brene Brown‘s I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t): Telling the Truth about Perfectionism, Inadequacy, and Power. It’s quite a […] Read More

Bold isn’t just for the boardroom. One can also take this admirable quality home to bed. Here’s an encouraging item that showed on up on my Compuserve screen yesterday: “Six Habits of Highly Sexual Women.” It includes such wisdom as: “Carnal Custom #2: Let Loose … Sex is not rocket science. It won’t cure cancer […] Read More

It’s once again time for a bit of boldly shameless self-promotion. Here’s my flyer for one Saturday afternoon class and three separate Friday lunchtime sessions. If the Raleigh-Chapel Hill area is in reach for you, I hope you’ll consider coming to one or more: I’m offering a new half-day workshop for anyone interested in writing. […] Read More

If you’ve ever felt you wasted time by writing ten pages — or a whole lot more — that didn’t work, take a look at the extravagant generosity of this Zen-type artist and you may feel better. Scott Wade reproduces Old Masters and does his own original work IN DUST on the windows of cars. […] Read More

Don’t miss the dazzling photos of the Menton Lemon Festival on the blog called Imagine from floral designer Kenju. It sounds garish, but it’s not: a house-sized Taj Mahal made of lemons and oranges, a castle, a towering lemon girl, and more. I’d never heard of Menton or its lemon festival. And now I must […] Read More