A New Space

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I’ve been busy.

This fall I moved my writing studio into a new space with two artist friends, Elizabeth Seaver and Lynette Reed. We call it Water Studio Writing and Arts, after the street on which we “live,” which used to be called Water Street. (Wow, that was an awkward sentence!)

We hope to offer integrated writing/art classes as well as our traditional writing workshops and art classes. The best part? Being with creative people. Last Friday we had nearly 100 people stop by with good wishes! We are so grateful for friends who support us in our new adventure.

Here are a few photos of the artwork, our classes, and some of the items in our gift shop. And if you want to visit our Facebook page or blog, please do! That’s one of the reasons I haven’t been posting much here. Maintaining two Twitter feeds, two blogs, and FB on top of everything we needed to do to get set up. Well, I’m a little over the top.

But now that we’re in, I’m ready to write. I worked on a poem (taken from the draft of an essay) today. And I think it has potential.

And today a new writing friend brought these. Folded paper cranes, a perfect gift to spread happiness around our new home.

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I’m feeling settled. And that’s a good place to be.

 

 

Stopping in the Bookstore

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It was really hot today. I needed to walk around town, dropping of fliers for our new studio and classes, so I slipped into The Griffin to order a frozen berry smoothie. There on a low shelf, I noticed The Practical Writer. I own way too many writing books, but I couldn’t resist.

Now I can’t put it down.

“Think of The Practical Writer as a five-star-writers’ conference, minus the salad bar and the steep enrollment fee,” says Wally Lamb.

Julie Checkoway’s suggestions on beginnings and endings make me want to dig out that short story I wrote and tackle it again.

The book was published in 2004 by Poets & Writers. Some of the publishing advice is somewhat dated, but that won’t keep me from putting it on my studio shelf.

Hooray for small-town bookstores, and coffee shops, and butchers, and art studios!

 

 

 

Keeping Faith

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Sometimes I am so hard on myself. One class doesn’t work as planned, and I berate myself for being a poor teacher. Another rejection comes from a literary magazine, and I refuse to take joy in the acceptances and publications I’ve already received.

You know what I’m talking about. The exasperating voice in our heads, the one that says: LOSER. You can almost feel the finger pointing right between your eyes.

I’m lucky, though. I tend to be a glass half-full kind of person. Once I can feel the weight piling up on my shoulders, I start tossing those layers of negativity aside. Soon, I dive back into the project at hand.

I begin again, remembering this from Annie Dillard:

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.