See my recent post, “Ill Take a Village. Please.” at DC Metro Moms Blog about missing the extra hands that helped entertain my son over the holidays. At least this week he was back to school and re-started a Spanish class, which gives me half day of help on Thursday and keeps me from entering…
writing mother
Startting 2010 as a writer
A friend sent me this piece by Ann Patchett that is inspiring but daunting. Can I commit to a daily writing practice for 32 days, starting tomorrow. And if I do, will it stick? What if I can’t sleep at 2 a.m. and so getting up early to write means I’m going to be a…
Cell Phone Intrusion
So I called my friend to check on her after she’d emailed earlier in the week that she thought her baby would come soon. “I didn’t have a chance to write you back. How are you doing?” She’s hundreds of miles and several states away now. “I have a baby.” Having given birth just hours…
Articles and artifacts
The contrast could not have been more stark. Scene One:I was standing in line at the post office sending an incredibly overdue care package to a friend who had a baby in the spring and an overdue package with a homemade pregnancy & postpartum journal to a friend who is due in just a month….
Putting myself out there
I’m probably not going to get a whole lot of fans from the mainstream mommy blogging community for this, but I’m enjoying writing about things I care about. I recently wrote a not-so-positive review of a new PBS show, and I’ve been writing about health-related stuff in a new column at the Washington Times Communities…
Mom pens children’s book on food allergies
At a recent screening of Fresh, the movie, I met a lot of great folks who care a lot about food and health. One was author and local mom Mary Rand Hess, who just published a children’s book called The Day I Met the Nuts (illustrated by Candice Hartsough McDonald) with Earth Day Press. The…
Writing mama as citizen journalist
Today Mothering Magazine editor Peggy O’Mara spoke about the “new health journalism” at the National Vaccine Information Center’s Fourth International Public Conference. She contrasted “industrial media” — most of which is owned by only 10 companies — with digital media. I like thinking of myself as one of many “citizen journalists,” a “participant observer” reporting…
Great play about WAHM
This past weekend, I got to see a (free!) reading of a new play by Karen Brody, author of Birth: The Play. At the Kennedy Center, as part of the Page to Stage program, actors read from evolving scripts, including Brody’s one-act “Michelle Obama: Taskmaster”. The play introduced us to Beth, a working-at-home mom of…
Away from home
It’s seriously happening. I’m spending the night away from my son. My first in 3.4 years. And all thanks to the internet. I posted a few months back on a moms email list looking for a place in the metro area where I could just go and work on the laptop all day long without…
To be not at BlogHer
I waited too long. By the time I decided that we’d be in an okay place with the move and that yes, I could justify the money to fly to Chicago for my first solo time since becoming a mom, BlogHer was sold out. I’d hoped that the conference would get me over the hump…
Back to writing (or at least thinking about it)
Back to the real world! I’ve been totally focused on moving for the past week (really months, but especially this week), and there’s been no small amount of frustration (see “Life without internet,” my post today at DC Metro Moms Blog). But I’m taking a break this afternoon to check out a writing workshop with…
Essay published in Exhale
The July issue of Exhale: A Literary Magazine for Intelligent People Who Have Lost a Baby, or Have Trouble Making Babies in the First Place includes a fabulous (and award-winning!) piece by my colleague and friend, Kim O’Connell. “A Feast for What Was Lost” is a must-read. My essay appears as this issue’s featured story….
THE DC writer mama says goodbye
Ouch! I just read in my DC Baby Newsletter that DC Baby author Sarah Masterson is leaving town to return to Austin, Texas. I probably should have known this long ago if I’d been paying attention to anything besides my impending move and the havoc it’s wreaking on my son. But I didn’t know Sarah…
No vacation for mama
I wanted a weekend in my house to myself to write, do yoga, prepare food only for myself. But hubby just never made those plans to take Junior on his first overnight away from mom. So then I decided I could pack up and spend 9 a.m. Saturday to 4 p.m. Sunday at coffeshops and…
Joining the profession
Once I got the piece published in the Post, I felt like I could call myself a serious enough writer to join what used to be Washington Independent Writers (now gone national to be “American” I.W.). Though I didn’t register in time to go to any agent pitch sessions (which frankly was a relief after…
Mom playwright article
I am just so fascinated with the story of this local mom of three who is a hugely successful playwright. The Washington Post ran a nice piece about Karen Zacarias a few weeks ago. It’s helpful to hear how another mom and her family were able to set priorities for her to be successful as…
Mama and son in the Washington Post
I’m thrilled to have published my first piece in the Washington Post. Last year, right after we attended Alexandria Symphony Orchestra’s, I knew I wanted to write a piece. The event is such a great opportunity for kids to be exposed to classical music, to instruments and to other art forms. I called the ASO…
It’s a writing conference, and I’ll cry if I want to
I didn’t want to. I just did. Cry, that is. I was actually having a lovely time at the “Conversations and Connections” writing conference until we hit the moment of speed dating with editors. I froze. Choked. Lost it. Whatever negative verb you want to pick, it probably fits. The problem was partly that I’d…
Mama meets with other writers
“Mommy’s going to work all day tomorrow,” I told my son. “To work with your student?” Usually I leave for work only in the evenings, to tutor. When the sitter is here on Wednesday mornings, I say I’m working in the basement, usually for my “meeting” (new chapter of Holistic Moms Network). But tomorrow I’m…