And should have been for all of 2020 — I wrote this several months ago, way last year (then ran into a writing wall before I published it). …

And helps you build confidence in your unique voice. In just 15-minute bursts, freewriting will get you to that important first draft. The basic necessity of writing something new. But lots of us struggle through that first draft — hemming, writing, scratching out, blasting forth then rethinking, back to crossing…

You really can’t always get what you want. That’s my life’s theme song. But you can get what you need. Not sure about that — no wait. I have gotten what I needed. What I wanted first was something long-term with a man. But instead, I got Hawaii in all…

Just six months after a life-saving and revitalizing liver transplant in May 2016, I fell headfirst into a deep hole “experts” call depression. One afternoon in the middle of a nap, I was rocked awake with great, heaving sobs. And not a single apparent clue why. I called a friend…

How I returned to soaking beans overnight and living more fully I haven’t had the energy to cook from scratch for years. Well, some things, yes — quick easy things like scrambled eggs. But starting with dried beans, the overnight soak, cooking and seasoning them into little soft pillows of…

My little baby girl kitty, Violet, is gone. I took her to be euthanized on Wednesday, October 2nd. It will forever be the worst day of my life — and of course, hers. I’ve never grieved any other being as much as I am grieving her now. The only one…

The first piece of writing advice I had was from a real, published author. We happened to be tutoring writing in a college writing center on an afternoon that was usually very slow. We had time to talk. So I spilled a dream I had about writing a romance novel…

Are you listening? Recently the universe conspired to pull together a highly unlikely story for me. It was a drawn-out little tale that took place over a week. When the final piece fell into place, as it seemed bound to from the frustrating beginning, there was the final Aha moment. …

By Dana Bennett I was reading Anne Lamott’s newest book, Almost Everything, when I read this in the chapter called “Inside Job”: “There is almost nothing outside you that will help in any kind of lasting way, unless you are waiting for a donor organ.” When I read that, I’d…