From Under the Birch Tree As I lugged my stuffed granny cart home I stopped a few times to watch a basketball game, and then a baseball game in the field across the street, continuing on with people-watching who are carrying on with their business. I stopped time to be in the moment and lie down on the cool stiff [...]
An excerpt . . . My emotions voiced their opinion one night. Talk in my head revolved. I cried for the memories of the past and the emotions I would pack with me, masked on my face and wrapped around my heart. Feeling lost and disconnected during the unemployment days was never too far away. I traipsed Michigan Avenue from [...]
Heading north on Lake Shore Drive, summer sapphire skies complimented the pale green lake with its waves creating a rhythm that blended with the beats of my heart. But when winter winds demanded attention, grey skies clashed with blue-grey water, a tiring violence. Oak Street, Division, North Avenue, Fullerton, Belmont. I named each exit. Addison, Waveland. I used to get [...]
"There are two basic approaches to creative nonfiction," according to Lee Gutkind, author of You Can't Make this Stuff Up, - memoir/personal essay and immersion nonfiction. I get how immersion is creative nonfiction but the memoir/personal essay part still remains unclear as to how that genre could be under the creative nonfiction umbrella. Gutkind writes that creative nonfiction, referred to [...]
. . . exerpt from Under the Birch Tree We took photographs in front of the picture window at our brick house on Carlisle Street because it was the perfect suburban backdrop. Two-story homes sat like gems on their velvet lawns set with oak and maple trees and manicured hedges. I remember my picture was taken there on my first [...]
The folded blueprints I plucked from my grey bucket came from the building department at the village. They felt like a treasure in my hands; I wanted to delve into them with abandon. I separated the inky paper folds, spreading the map flat on the floor. I squatted to read the details of the reverse print. The building commissioner had [...]
I've read them all - on plot, beginnings, middles and ends, writing life stories, memoir, personal essays and whatever falls in between. Writers of these books have been prolific with general guidance and "how to" described in no uncertain abstract terms. Finally, I succumbed to just one more read on the memoir subject. "Writing & Selling Memoir" by Paula Balzer [...]