By Marion Roach Smith
THE BRA’S BIRTHDAY. Now there is something to celebrate, sisters. And a centennial birthday, at that. Imagine: 100 years have gone by since the first American woman said—now repeat after me, sisters—“How in the world am I going to these into that?” Oh, yes, sisters, let’s light some birthday candles and throw a few bras on the pyre, since it’s a birthday you don’t want to miss. We have a woman named Mary to thank for it. The full-figured story.
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Marion Roach Smith
By Marion Roach Smith
THERE WAS A time when our dogs divided us. It happens in neighborhoods, and it did, in ours. Each of us lived behind our own electric fence, keeping our dogs in our own territories, allowing for no mixing of our pedigreed charges. The humans walked, we waved, but we knew little of one another’s lives, except, perhaps, that it was the woman in each home who walked the dog. That much was clear. And for a while that’s how it was: Not much contact, little to say, we walked our dogs along the perimeter of each other’s lives. One day last week was different.
By Marion Roach Smith
THE SUMMER SLUMP. This is a tough time for writers–that time of year when the most seductive set of temptations to not write beckon: the great outdoors and all its wonders. I mean, who can write in this weather? Who can write when you could instead: swim/sail/run/play tennis/golf/hike, whatever? You can. That is, if you’ll willing to do a simple things. Are you? Then come along.
By Marion Roach Smith
AND YOU THOUGHT your family home was strange. How about growing upon a “divorce ranch,” one of the famous places where women who once wanted out of their marriages could live as “residents” while awaiting a Nevada divorce? Here’s what got me thinking of this.
Margaret's godfather, Max Hirsch
By Marion Roach Smith
THIS SATURDAY IS one of those emotional high holy days in our family. No, it’s not someone’s birthday, or anniversary. It’s not the day on which anyone graduates, or moves up, or gets inducted into anything. And while it’s simply Belmont Stakes day for millions of racing fans, for us, it’s the annual recognition of how it is my sister came to be named for a horse. Read the tale.
By Marion Roach Smith
IAM SO EXCITED TO INVITE YOU to come join the just-launched month-long memoir workshop I’m doing on the giant website Beliefnet, where (with a little prodding from yours truly) May has been named Memoir Month! The workshop is called “Writing What You Know” (sound familiar?). Why Beliefnet? Because I believe that writing what you know is the single greatest portal to self discovery. Come take a peek as we gear up, or register to join the free group class.
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ONCE UPON A TIME there was no sisterhood, Marion says. “This is back when we were new to a school, or grade, the new kid in a neighborhood or a Brownie troop, back when no one seemed to like us. And then one day some kid passed us a pencil, or laughed at our joke, or slipped us a note. And soon there really was an ‘us,’ and nothing seemed more important, or special, or forever….” Read the show tune-laced tale of Marion’s first sisterhood.
IT STARTED FOR TSP’S MARION WITH a single photo, glimpsed on the Library of Congress site while she was researching something else entirely. A picture of three beautifully dressed women simply stopped her, made her change direction, and abandon one train of thought for another. This happens to writers; it’s a hazard, as well as a joy, of the profession. Want to talk about joy? “Meeting” the Brox sisters gave Marion plenty, which she’ll share with you in this slideshow and a video.
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TSP’S MARION ROACH SMITH CALLS IT “OUR GREAT EXPERIMENT.” Big sister Margaret calls it “Why not, and can-do.” It’s the release today (on the occasion of her “29th” birthday) of Marion’s fourth book by none other than big sister Margaret-turned-publisher. (Happy birthday, Marion. I think that’s the most unusual gift I ever got you.) :) It’s also a must-have for anyone doing any memoir-style writing–whether in print or on a blog–since that’s what Marion’s been teaching to sold-out classes for 13 years. Get the details (and the book) from our engaging red-headed expert and birthday girl.
WHAT A MEMOIR, AND WHAT A SISTER STORY. Having lived with Parkinson’s for 20 years, Zoe FitzGerald Carter’s headstrong mother decides she wants to end her life—and have her three daughters by her side when she does. When our Sister Marion read Zoe’s new, highly acclaimed book about it, called Imperfect Endings, she wrote to the author, and this generous new sister-friend reached right back, telling us her tale–one layered not just with hard times, but also with shared Cyndi Lauper songs and thick black eyeliner, and talking on the phone while eating (the true sign of sisterhood, she says). Zoe’s TSP interview is in our Galleries now.
OUR SISTER MARION LOVES PASSOVER, though it’s not strictly in her religious heritage. It is the traditions of the annual meal that inform her, including, as they do, the ancient questions that are repeated and pondered again. One of those questions only Marion asks, and only quietly to herself at that, as she is reminded of her personal all-time favorite man of faith, quietly reassuring herself that it’s just fine that he was imaginary. Meet her favorite magical guest now.
MARION AND HER DOGS. It’s a relationship she’s written about before, referring to it as “the sisterhood of the dog” in more than one blog post. And whenever the subject of Marion and her dogs comes up, the words just seem to tumble out. But then every once in a while, no words are needed. Don’t believe her? Press play above. And then go say hello to our two-legged, dog-loving sister.
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IT’S HERE, FINALLY, Sister Marion says. You think she means Spring, or gardening season, or prepare-to-get-into-bathing-suit season? Nope. Not that. Or, more to the point, all that plus this one other altogether totemic annual moment: that first run of holidays (as opposed to the November-December sleigh ride) during which memoir writers are given ample opportunities to take notes. Get out your notebooks, sisters: Your family is on its way to your holiday table! Good fodder coming right up. How to get ready to write it.
First time here? Here's the idea: TSP is a network of blogs about the many facets of the word sister, and the concept of sisterhood. A sisterhood of sister blogs, you could say. Whatever sister means to you, from identical twin to sister-in-law (or in-friendship or in-feminism), we’ll make room to listen in about it or express it on TSP. Like the slogan up top says, “Don’t you have something to say to your sister?” We've got galleries of art and literature by and about sisters, and a Sisterpedia of sisterly trivia...but now we're getting ahead of ourselves. The quick study: 
As the suffix of its name suggests, 
No surprise, really, that sisterhood, often life’s longest relationship and always one of its most important, has been the Muse for so much creative self-expression by women, and also by men. 
