LITERARY NON-FICTION

My first professional writing credits were pieces inspired by ideas, causes and life expeirences. Here are a few of my favorites. Click the title to read the entire piece.

Clues, Advice and Thanks: "When you are 30-years-old and have never taught before and an 84-year-old student refuses to write, you try everything – every writing mantra, every trick you know, even a little guilt – and when nothing works you ignore him and pray. Apparently his wife is forcing him to come to this class." - skirt! magazine

Crocheting and Crying: "My mother crocheted while she waited for me after dance classes, while she sat through football games to watch me perform with the band at half-time. When I moved to Los Angeles she rode with me and crocheted her way across all the oddly-shaped states slammed up against each other, making delicate cross-shaped Bible markers." - skirt! magazine

Because You're a Girl: "I wish I could do it again. I wish I could march onto a football field with 150 musicians and flag corps following me. I wish I could feel the buzz of stands full of people watching as I saluted, blew a whistle, clapped and pointed gloved hands and feel the music wash over me." - skirt! magazine

Sweet Melissa: "I know most of what made Melissa sad. I cannot tell you the details because I respect her privacy. There are so many sad things in life and we do not honor our sadness. We try to cheer up, pop anti-depressants, buy stuff – hell, even move to other cities – to be happier. And maybe we should learn to face the sadness. We should know that it passes, and we will not shatter and break. And we have to be better – to our friends and families and to ourselves." - skirt! magazine

One Day at a Time: "I hinted at the direction I really wanted for my life. I bought the planner of all planners for a writer to have on her desk – The New Yorker Desk Diary. Oh, how marvelous – the font, the vertical day spaces, the three tiny months – past, present, future on the bottom left and the Notes section, crisp and white. And the dreamy cartoon for each week, known for not always being funny, but at least wry..." - skirt! magazine

Forgiveness: "Then the only president I’ve every really trusted saved me. President Bartlet on The West Wing, where I reunite weekly with some of my liberal friends (so few live in South Carolina), visited an injured soldier in the hospital. The soldier asked, “How about a prayer, sir?” And I sighed, as I usually sigh, when religion creeps in, even into fiction, and blurs my adamant line of separation of church and state." - AveNews