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

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 know, November was ...

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 porch, I see a gentle r...

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

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 the Heart." Barbara Le...

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 a whopper of a storm...

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 the importance of fill...

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

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

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 in print (or online...

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

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

Last Wednesday night I manifested a dream. For years, ever since I became a writing workshop leader, I have felt called to offer a class for stepmoms that wo...

I’ve recently returned from a weeklong writing retreat in the south of France (more on that in a future post) led by my friend and fellow Amherst Writers & A...

In February I went to a yoga and meditation retreat in the mountains of Costa Rica. When I say “in the mountains,” what I mean is that our retreat center was...

To prepare for an upcoming writing retreat in France led by my friend Summer Hardinge, I decided to read Alain de Botton’s The Art of Travel. I had heard it w...

Cindy Atlee and I go way back to the days when I taught YogaRhythmics®. Every week we danced, laughed, and stretched together, and I had no idea that she was...

It’s the most common of clichés: “Inertia is a powerful force.” Mostly we tend to think of it in terms of exercise. Who hasn’t been in a decent groove with a...

I don't know about you, but I often find myself at this time of year—the twilight between Christmas and New Year's—wondering where the year went. More specif...

Barbara Farmer has been coming to my Monday women’s AWA workshop, Writing from the Heart, for several years. You can still hear traces of her Queens, New Yor...