by marionroach on January 20, 2010
NO MORE WRITING EXERCISES. Have any of those stupid prompts or morning pages ever gotten you published? Has writing from the right side of your brain, or getting in touch with your angel’s feather, or scribbling pages put you where you want to be as a writer? I doubt it. I suspect that those manners of nonsense have instead stolen what little time you had for writing. How do I know? Because the memoir class I’ve taught for 12 years is filled with people recovering from those very exercises, people whose sole relationship to writing was practicing, not writing for real. Right now, I’m running two Master Classes consisting of a total of 24 people who have made the New Year commitment to finish their books by the end of June 2010. They are writing for real. Want to join the wave of success? [click to continue…]
by marionroach on January 15, 2010
BOOT CAMP: NOT A PHRASE that previously would have caught my eye, but after reviewing our finances, and my butt, I realized that while personal training was no longer an option, something must be done to continue the healthy workout routine I’d adopted. What I never expected was to discover a brand new sisterhood in the bargain.
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by marionroach on January 6, 2010
SOMETIMES I’M SIMPLY TOO PISSED OFF to keep it to myself. What always happens when this happens is I tell my sister first, and since these days I have so very many sisters to tell, I’ll tell you, too. This being-too-pissed-off-to-keep-quiet thing doesn’t happen often. But it happened today, and as of today my habits will change, and never again will I enter an H&M clothing store. Here’s why.
by marionroach on January 6, 2010
WHO CROSSED YOUR PATH FIRST on New Year’s Day? If it was a redhead, you may need to fasten your seat belt for a bumpy 2010, since at least one beginning-of-the-year tradition holds that the person first crossing your threshold in the new year decides the luck you’ll have for the next 365 days. [click to continue…]
by marionroach on January 5, 2010
THE DOGS LIVES ON. Now, two months after his harrowing and lengthy hospital stay, Otter is still alive. And he appears to be well. His blood-test numbers fluctuate a bit, giving me a scare here and there, but to see him is to know that he is much better. And while the doctors agree, they also agree that he is still sick, and must stay on a special diet, designed to not stress his greatly weakened kidneys. Which would be fine, except that he is also allergic to everything. And so we consulted a nutritionist.
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by marionroach on December 18, 2009
YOU KNOW HOW WE LOVE US SOME SINGALONGS. I mean, we’ve done it before. So here, for all you sisters juggling holiday prep, is our seasonal song, to be sung to the tune of There is Nothing Like a Dame, which, if you need to be reminded, is right up top in the music video. [click to continue…]
by marionroach on December 16, 2009
SISTERS, SISTERS THERE were never such devoted sisters. Ring a bell? It should. A holiday bell, to be specific, since those are the opening lyrics to perhaps the most memorable song from White Christmas, that fine movie that is now playing on TV almost nonstop in the festive season. Sisterly devotion is also the theme to so much of what we write about here at TSP, perhaps never more so illustrated than by the December 16th birthday girl, Jane Austen (1775), and the astonishing act of sisterhood performed by her sister after the death of the famous writer. [click to continue…]
by marionroach on December 8, 2009
THERE ARE SOME PHRASES we hope never to utter. We all have them, and since they are inutterable I won’t list them, nope, except this one, which I can now say aloud, head raised, even making eye contact with another human, after a sister-stranger saved me, liberated me, and made me hold my red head up high and say: I cook for my dog. [click to continue…]
by marionroach on December 3, 2009
WE’RE ONE YEAR OLD AT TSP, and since the traditional gift for a first anniversary is paper, I thought I’d make a list of the She Said, She Said highlights that are simply too good not to mention.
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by marionroach on December 1, 2009
SHE SAID, SHE SAID is one year old, and in its short life has taken on everything from the precious to the red hot between my older sister and me. If you’ve been reading along you’ve learned that we don’t see most things the same way, and that on some topics—our mother, for instance—there is no seeing eye-to-eye, but rather a history of fighting tooth and nail. That behavior does not extend to our other parent. Not a bit. And in celebration of this anniversary I offer a token, a gesture, a love letter of sorts. [click to continue…]
NO MORE WRITING EXERCISES. Have any of those stupid prompts or morning pages ever gotten you published? Has writing from the right side of your brain, or getting in touch with your angel’s feather, or scribbling pages put you where you want to be as a writer? I doubt it. I suspect that those manners of nonsense have instead stolen what little time you had for writing. How do I know? Because the memoir class I’ve taught for 12 years is filled with people recovering from those very exercises, people whose sole relationship to writing was practicing, not writing for real. Right now, I’m running two Master Classes consisting of a total of 24 people who have made the New Year commitment to finish their books by the end of June 2010. They are writing for real. Want to join the wave of success? [click to continue…]
First time here? Here's the idea: 
