You saw me when I walked by. An almost-40 woman in a pink tie-dyed maxi skirt and a white peasant blouse. Layered, but not enough to keep off the October chill. A black brick purse cutting into one shoulder. Mouse-brown hair in straight lines down my shoulders and back. Perhaps you saw a look on my…
Read more
 It was 10:30pm. I lay there on the floor in front of the fireplace, too exhausted to move and thankful for the peaceful sound of nothing. My arm, though bony, was a good pillow for my head, which had not been combed since the morning before. My dog was chewing on something expensive, like…
Read more
It is incredibly easy to remember all the hardships that happened over the last year. The loss of job, the loss of dog, the loss of my no-pants writing gig. It’s easy to count the losses and grief. I think those things stick in our craw because they are the times that we learned…
Read more
I don’t like being hated. I mean, that’s probably a human universal, right? No one wants to feel like a target. One of the words that I hear bandied about often as a middle school teacher is “bullied.” Students and parents both know that it is the modern-day equivalent of screaming “fire” in a…
Read more
Uncle Leonard stood at the prow of the ship, a 42-foot Ketch, looking every bit the captain in the blazing late afternoon heat. The trade winds riffled through his crew cut, and Austin wondered if that sheaf of smoky hair hadn’t had more to do with his success than his understanding of computer parts or…
Read more
Getting older sucks. Trust me, I am the most belligerently unhappy human on the subject. I truly thought that I would get away with being 12 forever. I mean, I am completely irresponsible, awful about keeping myself alive, and pretty sure that everyone who is not me is a robot. And then, it happened. One…
Read more
Being Bipolar has it’s good parts. I mean, how many times have you said, “Hey, I’m going to write a musical,” and then actually followed through with it? I do that all the time. Bipolar people get a bad rap, but the truth is that we really like parts of our illness. The manic phases…
Read more
Recently, I have been working on a fictional story that is very personal. It involves some things from my past that are traumatic and hard for me to bring up. Finishing was difficult. It left me razed and empty. What’s more, is that I know that I will never be able to publish it or…
Read more
It’s not like He doesn’t want to, however. The problem is that you’ve been so busy being alive that you may not have taken the time to slow down and really listen. You don’t have to believe me on this, and I’m sure that some of you don’t. But, after a strange and harrowing 35…
Read more
I suppose there are a lot of things I could write about today. I haven’t been here for a few months, so there’s some catching up to do. I’m going to give you a short timeline so you can feel like you’ve been there: November – Our family moves to Vernal, UT to follow the…
Read more
The best thing about social media is that you get to meet so many amazing and cool people! Case in point: from my limited (and harrowing) time on Twitter, I made friends with a plethora of interesting writers, each of them uniquely talented and inspiring. One of these lovely people was the incredible Nillu Stelter,…
Read more
A couple of weeks ago, I looked at my Facebook author page and realized that I had close to 500 followers. Being a number-loving kind of gal, I figured that I would turn the upcoming 500 into a real event. So, I decided that I would issue a challenge. It was a fun challenge…
Read more
