The COVID-19 Self-Care Checklist

As we adjust to the New Normal, I’ve found myself struggling to do a daily routine that once came (more) easily to me. I realized what I needed was a way to check off the essentials of what I aimed to do each day.I searched the Internet and also dug up one of my...

Online Writing Courses I Recommend

Following up on my last post about free online writing courses, here are the most transformative paid online writing courses I’ve taken.  I resisted paying for a writing course for a long time. Then a fiction-writing friend declared they changed her writing...

Free Online Courses for Writers

I’m touched by the enthusiastic feedback for my recent Hippocampus Magazine article, “How to Write About Trauma in a Safe(r) Way.” I’m honored that so many people including therapists (!) find it helpful. Knowing this makes the challenges that led to...

Snow Moon (Living in Korea)

Last month I took the garbage out, intending to immediately go back inside, but I was drawn by the setting sun, which looked like the February snow moon of my birthday week when I was in Canada the month before: low to the horizon and hauntingly large, a bright circle...

The Process of Writing Memoir

In sharing my work for critique with other writers, I am learning that the process of writing memoir can be hard for writers of other genres to understand. I find I often get the same feedback over and over, and it’s not always possible to incorporate all...

Coming Back to Writing!

I’ve decided to dust off this old thing and start blogging about my writing process again. The timing reflects the fact that I’ve begun to write more seriously again. After a big life change a few years ago, I almost completely stopped writing, other than...

On Moving to Korea

Many people from home have commented countless times on how happy and at peace I look here in Korea. It’s true. Living abroad is tough and not for everyone; I struggled my first year at a workhorse academy, but overall the new experiences have been worth it. I feel...

Living Abroad, One Step At A Time

One reason I haven’t been so good about updating and keeping in touch is that I’m in a serious down period right now in my adjustment to living abroad. Yesterday I realized one of the underlying things that is making me unhappy right now — how difficult it is to do...

What Korea Feels Like

Friends and family have been asking me why I haven’t started my long-promised Korea blog yet. In short, my two months here have flown by (helped by the fact that I was sick for 3.5 weeks) as I’ve been working, travelling, meeting new people and adjusting to an...