In Nicole Krauss’s novel Forest Dark, her discussion of Kafka’s frustrating relationship to thresholds, where one is in perpetual limbo and nothing ever happens, set me to pondering my working definition of such a space. I think of a threshold as brimming with possibility, an in-between space time that is neither all or none nor… Continue Reading
Coldplay, “Ghost Story,” and Magical Realism –
I love the album Ghost Stories, especially the song“Ghost Story.” The bits about being unseen, being little more than a whisper remind me that ghosts, conjured or otherwise, are always with us. My hometown is littered with ghosts. Mapping that to fiction, in THE TIN BOX ghosts are not Casper-like figures but a presence created… Continue Reading
Nick Cave and the Writing Process
In a documentary on Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Nick Cave shares his song writing process. I am always in search of something that assists. Sure, I have my process – lots of word spillage then many, many revisions. But I am also always curious about other ways to get the desired effect. His… Continue Reading
Like a Lana Del Rey Song
My spouse and I were eating in a steak house in Seattle, when he said something I did not fully hear. My face turned red, my pulse raced, and I began to sweat a little. He asked what the matter was, and I told him what I thought I’d heard. He laughed. I was still… Continue Reading
Historical but Relevant
UNDERCURRENTS plays with the notion of everyday philosophers when Sam Burden reflects on a conversation with Soren regarding the pioneering thinker, Sigmund Freud. Soren was most interested in how Freud interpreted dreams. Sam liked to consider his ideas about narcissism – considerations that are always relevant. In the When Soren leaves home to find her… Continue Reading
Like Throwing Words on Canvas
I once wrote that my writing process is never linear but resembles something akin to throwing words on a canvass – first chapters ending up last, writing all around the manuscript instead of from beginning to end, not because I think myself an artist but because that’s how my brain works. Then I read that… Continue Reading
Wilder Hearts
Mumford & Sons’ song “Wilder Mind” on their album by the same title says something about identity and the imagination – “you can be every little thing you want nobody to know.” My new project SALT DREAMS is also about wilder minds and even wilder hearts than in UNDERCURRENTS. The novel explores identity and desire.… Continue Reading
We are who we believe we are…
When I was a girl my father told me his grandmother was Cherokee, his father’s family French – “DuBois became DuBose somewhere along the line,” he said. My grandmother had distinct Native features as did one of my sisters. There was no reason to question it. I grew up playing outdoors like most children of… Continue Reading
Meditative Novels and the Reader.
There’s chat in the ether about writers needing to have respect for the reader’s time. It asks whether a long-winded meditation is appropriate for fiction or memoir. The Blue Guitar (John Banville) immediately comes to mind. The narrative structure of Banville’s meditation on aging is buttressed by a carefully layered storyline that keeps the novel… Continue Reading
Bones of Life
When Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones) wrote that we should write about what we love and create a space in which to do it, I thought choosing to write, giving myself permission to do it, and carving a space for it was not an issue for me. I was an English professor and was… Continue Reading
Undercurrents 
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