What To Do When You Can't Power Through
shell on sand “It’s supposed to be in the nineties today,” Mark warns, as he shoots off to work, leaving me alone at my desk with my fear of sweating to death and, worse, a blank screen. It’s already mid-July, or should I say it’s only mid-July, in that messy middle of summer, when I can’t yet…
Trove of Gold
I hit the jackpot at Meig's Point at Hammonasset Beach where the William F. Miller Campground—the largest in the state—is named for my father. Born on farmland that would eventually become part of the park, my dad worked his way up to the position of Director, a job he held until his death in 1984.…
Jesus in the Street
When you head out for a walk and God's son appears on the corner of Brooks and Varnum, you know you're on the right path. Just pick him up and take him with you everywhere.
Write Like You’re Giving Birth
“Write from your guts,” I told my creative nonfiction students on the last day of class. “Don’t ignore the pain. Don’t act like it isn’t there and try tiptoeing around it. You have to write your way through your own dark woods.” I recalled the excruciating experience of back labor when giving birth…
Our Dance With Leonard
Mark and I were married on a moody August evening in 1997 on the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts. At the end of our ceremony, with the sun setting behind us, we recited the lyrics to the Leonard Cohen song "Dance Me to the End of Love," ending with these lines: Dance me to your beauty with a…
Seeing The World, Not The Wall: Election Lessons From Death Row
A few years ago I profiled death row inmate Damien Echols for a national magazine. After a badly bungled police investigation, Echols, 18 at the time, was sentenced to death for the 1993 murder of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. The harrowing details of Echols’s nearly two-decade long ordeal…
Night Clubbing
I have some pretty strong theories of people who are up at night or too early, strong like a Manhattan on the rocks with Angostura bitters and a dark cherry. We tend to think of ourselves as worriers, as tossers and turners, but that's selling it short, that is ignoring the depths of our night…
The Lonely Darkness vs. The Dark Alone
Here's my most recent post on the Brevity Blog for writers. A great place to visit in the middle of the night. Who better than a sleepless writer to explain the distinction between the Lonely Darkness and the Dark Alone? Allow me, if you will. The Lonely Darkness is tossing in bed until your…
Who's in?
My son's favorite teacher has been in the audition process for real Jeopardy, and it's a bid deal. You have to be fast and smart and alert and normal and a little quirky and, yeah, that's not what we're talking about here. The fantastic news with Insomnia Jeopardy is that anyone can play!!…