Author Archive
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
Stranded on a deserted screened porch
You’ve heard of the summer of love. I am having the summer of strandedness. And after two days of it, I am already learning a lot about myself.
First, may I say that I haven’t been this carless since I was sixteen and waiting for California to abolish the parallel parking requirement in the driver’s test so [...]
5 Comments » - Posted in fiction writing, procrastination, real life by sandi
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
Writing to a soundtrack
Do you like to have music on when you write, or do you need to keep silent to hear the characters talk?
I’m mixed on this one.
I have a CD called “The Yearning,” that is all alto flutes–soft and solid and flighty, all at once. This music has been known to reverse my blood flow and [...]
7 Comments » - Posted in fiction writing by sandi
Thursday, June 12th, 2008
Kissing Games of the World: right here in my house
Here it is: the advanced readers’ copy of the new book, which will come out in November.
It arrived this morning, and of course I stopped doing everything else I was supposed to be doing, and just sat down with it and gazed upon it, just the way you’d need to look at your newborn baby if it had somehow [...]
10 Comments » - Posted in books, fiction writing, writing by sandi
Friday, June 6th, 2008
The Once a Month book group
You see these smiling faces? This is the Once a Month book group in Lexington, North Carolina, one of the coolest book groups in the country. I know this because I talked to them on the phone this week. They had read A Piece of Normal and wanted to ask me questions about it. Before [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in books, fiction writing, fun by sandi
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
Writing about love affairs
Well, it’s another day writing on the screened porch for me. Nice breezes, and the dogwood tree petals (now sadly spent) fluttering down onto the lawn like a mild snowfall, the kind you don’t have to shovel.
But it was a hard day just the same, because I’ve now reached the point in my novel where [...]
7 Comments » - Posted in fiction writing by sandi
Sunday, May 18th, 2008
Babysitting adventures in modern life
When I was young and used to make my living by babysitting, here is how things usually worked:
1. Someone called me on the phone and asked me to babysit.
2. I said yes.
3. At the appointed hour, I went to the house, and the parents left, while the children screamed and carried on as though [...]
7 Comments » - Posted in family, kids by sandi
Monday, May 12th, 2008
The first Mother’s Day without my mother
My mother wasn’t really a fan of Mother’s Day. She always said it was one of your hokier holidays–just filled up with enforced sentiment and guilt, and whether her kids remembered it or not was no big deal to her. But we did it up just the same, the way children love to do: breakfast in [...]
4 Comments » - Posted in crazy mothers, holidays, real life by sandi
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
It’s good to have goals
It is just disgusting how some people never get around to writing on their blogs. I have so much to say and yet somehow, as my children remind me, I never seem to write any of it down. Why? Why? WHY?
Well, it’s because I am working on my new novel…and I’m now teaching two writing workshops [...]
5 Comments » - Posted in humor by sandi
Friday, April 25th, 2008
Cookin’ with teens
My friend Carol has more energy than most people. She’s written several books, about a million newspaper and magazine stories, AND she’s flown off to all parts of the world to make full-length, incredible documentaries. Plus, she volunteers in the school system and runs the Fairfield Writers Workshop where she teaches three classes a week. [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Uncategorized by sandi
Sunday, April 20th, 2008
When naming your own children isn’t enough…
“One of the best things about being a novelist,” said my friend Beth the other day, “must be that you get to use up all those names you couldn’t give to your kids. Or your dogs and cats.”
She’s right. Picking a name for a character is even more exciting than picking our child’s name, mainly because [...]
