I am packing my suitcases this week, wondering about where to fit my writing.  Clothes, check.  Great book, check.  Camera, check.  Teaching...

There's a place in every book where all the assembled objects begin to balance.  They have slowly come together through many pages and ...

I am sharing a post I wrote last summer, because my Madeline Island retreat is coming up again in July, and I remembered this wonderful expe...

Alison McGhee, writing instructor and author of many wonderful novels including Shadow Baby and Rainlight, once taught a very effective exer...

When you’re writing a book, you have to simultaneously hover over the forest, while you're noticing the tiny leaves of each tree.  Being...

Weekend book workshop, August 6-7, Manchester, NH.  For more information click here.

A student in my current online class had written a wonderful chapter for her book.  It was working almost perfectly:  the tension was high, ...

Weaving the pathway of outer and inner story (what happens and what's the meaning of it) through a book requires knowing the different e...

Outer story is the foundation for all good books. Outer story grounds the reader in your material, whether you are writing about people, po...

Last night, just as the moon was coming up (almost full!), I was out in the garden planting lettuce seedlings. I started them from seed in...