This weekend, my husband and I left our three children with his parents and went away to the mountains. He asked me to unplug from all electronic devices and knowing my lack of control, I left my cell phone lying on the floor of our bedroom here in Northern Virginia. The same night he asked me to unplug, my husband assured me I could blog about our weekend away; in fact, I’ve been trying to write that blog for three [...]
“I’m going to make it.” That was my mantra during the first marathon I ran. I felt unequal to the task, and yet I knew the course and the hills and the pain in my own body would not stop me. Even if it killed me, I would cross that finish line. The same mantra got me through writing a novel. At 2:33 p.m., May 22, 2012, I typed “The End” on the last page of Ripple, my first novel. [...]
I don’t talk or write much about religion because it confuses me. I am not an atheist or an agnostic. I am not a Catholic or a Methodist. I am not a Baptist or a Buddhist. But I do believe in God. I try to be true to my beliefs, whatever they are on a given day. In my tentatively titled, upcoming novel, Ripple, one of my main characters is a mother whose daughter was raped. After she takes matters [...]
In the dream I was running again. From one stride to the next I ran from a snowy field to a drought-starved dead ball field. And then I was failing a chemistry experiment again. I kept digging through my pockets to find the missing black pieces but my Dad was yelling at me, or maybe it was Professor Smoot, and the parts fell through my fingers. He scowled at me, professor, father, softball coach all in one, and I stifled [...]