Split Self

Several years ago, my mother gave me a t-shirt with a saying on it: When my gut says, “No,” my mouth says, “Sure, I’d be glad to.” Mother’s observation proved more and less useful: more because upon occasion I did have two minds, one thinking and the other speaking,...

Big Ed

The first time I met Big Ed, he was standing in the high-ceilinged front room of his home, an old plantation turned Victorian farmhouse in southern Virginia. A bear of a man, he turned my nice-to-meet-you handshake into a warm hug. Keith had told his parents that I...

Play

Last week, I brought home 5 flats of vinca major, a couple of sweet-scented viburnum shrubs, a butterfly bush, an assortment of herbs – mint, oregano, rosemary, thymes and sage – and bags of soil prep. Keith helped with the heavy lifting – two truckloads – and...

Writing Workshops

“The breadth is thought provoking, intriguing, searching, promising.” “The storyteller’s voice worked. The writer’s voice didn’t work.” “I didn’t like the voices – they got in my way.” “I really liked the voices – it’s an inner theater.” “The first part was a struggle...