Great ideas originate in the muscles

When I was small, I dreamed of writing for National Geographic. Then I peeked into copies of the New Yorker my aunt and uncle kept in their bathroom – OK, mainly I was reading the cartoons. If I’d had a mentor in my twenties, I would have gone full speed ahead to interview at Glamour and get my foot in the door at Condé Nast! Alas, at that time, I didn’t have the clarity.

Now I know that if I move my body before I write, my creative pathway will be more facile and open.

I’ve grown to trust that gems and passionate phrases emerge from that space.

I like to write as if I’m taking dictation from a higher power. I need to write faster than my critic can lay down the law, so I write with a pen on a piece of paper. If I wrote on my laptop or phone, I’d still be using the delete key to perfect this very sentence.

Writing my mother’s routes

My next project is a travel memoir. Throughout her life, my mother shared stories from her seven-month trek through Europe in 1951. I was writing a fictional account the trip from Finland to Gibraltar when she unexpectedly passed away.

A year after her death, I found a Kodak projector box under a pile of shower curtain liners in the bathroom of my parents’ retirement home. Inside were her trip slides along with notes of sites seen with her college friend. It was a mother lode in more ways than one.

I realized I had to retrace the trip. I’m checking off locations on her itinerary, one by one, and sharing highlights of my journey on my blog.

I write to express how I feel about the world. I write because my voice was dormant for too long. I write to share my love of words, rhythm and mystery.

Read some of my writing here and here.

When I was small, I dreamed of writing for National Geographic. Then I peeked into copies of the New Yorker my aunt and uncle kept in their bathroom – OK, mainly I was reading the cartoons. If I’d had a mentor in my twenties, I would have gone full speed ahead to interview at Glamour and get my foot in the door at Condé Nast! Alas, at that time, I didn’t have the clarity.

Now I know that if I move my body before I write, my creative pathway will be more facile and open.

I’ve grown to trust that gems and passionate phrases emerge from that space.

I like to write as if I’m taking dictation from a higher power. I need to write faster than my critic can lay down the law, so I write with a pen on a piece of paper. If I wrote on my laptop or phone, I’d still be using the delete key to perfect this very sentence.

Dancing Poems

Poems were always in my life. From writing an Ode to Soap Bubbles in high school to discovering a book of Chinese poems at the Barnes & Noble remainder store on 18th Street in New York City, which I promptly bought all my friends for Christmas, I’ve gravitated toward poetry’s evocative niche.

When I started conscious dance classes in 2000, I relished the times we danced and then made quick poems. I took more writing classes and went deeper.

Dancing Poems, a collection of poems written after dancing or moving, is now near publication. You can pre-order it on Amazon or check out my Shop.

Writing my mother’s routes

My next project is a travel memoir. Throughout her life, my mother shared stories from her seven-month trek through Europe in 1951. I was writing a fictional account the trip from Finland to Gibraltar when she unexpectedly passed away.

A year after her death, I found a Kodak projector box under a pile of shower curtain liners in the bathroom of my parents’ retirement home. Inside were her trip slides along with notes of sites seen with her college friend. It was a mother lode in more ways than one.

I realized I had to retrace the trip. I’m checking off locations on her itinerary, one by one, and sharing highlights of my journey on my blog.

I write to express how I feel about the world. I write because my voice was dormant for too long. I write to share my love of words, rhythm and mystery.

Read some of my writing here and here.