The women were in the kitchen. The men were in the living room. It was a wine tasting party and I was there because I was related to the hostess. Otherwise, I didn't know these women. One of these women, an executive at Wal-Mart, was telling the other wives about how she screwed up her …
No One Understands What You’re Saying
For years my grandmother worked at the edge of an orange grove in a wooden shack built on blocks and painted red. Spiders were always scuttling down the walls and grove workers milled about outside. She kept the books. Every morning she dressed for the office, sat with perfect posture all day long, and smoked. …
Everyone’s Listening But I Can’t See
Professor X is the most popular professor in the English department. Students want his attention, but his quick opinions scare me. I try to stay out of his way. --which is easy since he isn't aware I am in his class. I am walking down the hall when he notices me. He calls out my …
This Conversation Needs a Writer
"She'll think you don't like her," my dad said. I was on my way out the door. I had a date and I hadn't had a date in a year. I bit the inside of my cheek. "What do you mean?" I asked him. "A-- will think you don't like her," he said. A-- was …
Throwing Dead Flowers
The flowers he'd given me were dead. I hated to shove dead flowers in the trash. So, I pulled all the petals off the roses and put them in a bowl. I stepped outside the apartment without my shoes and in my peasant skirt. A tree blocked the view of our upstairs apartment from the …
Summer Solstice Fashion & Other Foolish Things You Can Win
I thought it would look cool to wear my favorite white skirt over my favorite white and lavender pants. It never occurred to me that no one else in the 4th grade dressed this way. No one in school dressed that way. But the fabrics were the same and they had similar lines, and I …
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Please pass the salt. I’ve got a wound over here that needs some.
You should read Betsy Lerner's The Forest for the Trees: And Editor's Advice to Writers. Indeed, an editor enjoys nothing more than being startled awake by a particularly witty or moving letter or reading the fresh pages of an extremely well-written manuscript and finding that the world receded as she becomes more deeply involved in …
Continue reading Please pass the salt. I’ve got a wound over here that needs some.
Gagging the World
A friend of mine sent me this quote from Annie Dillard. Publication is not a gauge of excellence. This is harder to learn than anything about publishing, and very important. Formerly, if a manuscript was 'good', it 'merited' attention. This has not been true for at least 20 years, but the news hasn't filtered out …
Teach Kids to Read & They’ll Read Something You Don’t Like
Our local library wouldn't allow me to check out books from the grown up section until I was 12. The librarian frowned at my grandmother when she realized grandma was checking out the Agatha Christie books on my behalf. I read while walking down the school hallways. I kept a book in my lap during …
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It was just like a movie!
My step-mother told us to get ready for bed. My step-sister ignored her, but I changed and brushed my teeth. We were 10. "I've changed my mind," my step-mother said. "We're going to the movies." "But I'm in my nightgown." "It's just the drive-in," she said. "A triple feature," my step-sister said excitedly and rattled …
Marta Bacon 