Last night I arrived home from a five-day personal writing retreat with a couple of friends at the Highlights Foundation’s retreat center...

Last month, after my mother and I were both fully vaccinated, I flew to Maine to visit her for Mother’s Day. She picked me up in Portland...

The 120-year-old embroidery piece my grandmother created when she was a teen hangs on my office wall. It was a sewing exercise for her to...

“Tell me something I can’t forget.”—Pat Schneider, founder of Amherst Writers & Artists I can’t forget Pat Schneider’s charming yellow...

March is National Reading Month, which I am happy to celebrate since—like most writers—I love to read! My earliest reading memories are...

Everything you go through grows you – Bob Sima, “No Mud, No Lotus” On Monday night I had the honor of hosting a special event to launch...

“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it...

It wasn’t Emily Dickinson who put Amherst, Massachusetts on the map for me: it was Pat Schneider. Pat was a gifted poet, author, and...

In early March I offered this video of Maya Angelou reading her poem "Phenomenal Woman" as a writing prompt to celebrate International...

Do you ever want to hit the reset button and begin again? I certainly do, especially when it comes to my writing practice. As many of you...

I am writing this at my desk in cabin #20 at the Highlights Foundation’s retreat center. As I look out my window past the screened-in...

I've enjoyed having Lynn Lothman as a participant in my Monday afternoon Amherst Writers & Artists workshop, “Writing from the Heart.”...

It's been far too long since I've showcased one of the talented writers in my Monday afternoon women's writing workshop, "Writing from...

Where I live in Loudoun County, the snow is falling thickly. According to the forecast, we are supposed to get up to 10 inches, which is...

Sometimes I think I do my best writing on my friend Summer Hardinge’s screen porch. As a writing workshop leader, I have long realized...

At the end of April a small group of writers joined me for Flower & Garden / Pen & Page, a Saturday morning writing workshop that...

In the last six-week session of Writing from the Heart, one of our favorite prompts was this: Write about your favorite childhood junk...

Sometimes as writers we just need a quick fix—to be noticed, to have our work read by someone other than our spouse, and to see our words...

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” —Woody Allen On Thursday I made the five-hour drive to Milanville,...

A new session of Writing from the Heart, a women’s Amherst Writers & Artists workshop, began on Monday. I had been looking forward to...