With slight adaptation, this post originally ran on the WordServe Water Cooler blog (www.wordservewatercooler.com), a terrific resource and community of writers. My name is Olivia Newport and I am an introvert. I’m not a hermit. Rich relationships nourish me, and my peeps keep me buoyant. Speaking, preaching, or leading a workshop do not scare […]
My friend is a drunk and not afraid to admit it. That’s one of many things to love about her. A couple of months ago at a book group meeting, Heather smiled at me across the room and asked, “How’s your tub?” I thought it was a peculiar question. Probably some dumb blank look crossed […]
My mother likes to rub it in my face that she lives in south Florida, especially in the winter. Especially if it’s cold where I live in Colorado. Especially if we’ve had snow. My mom likes to sit on the lanai (I love that word: lanai) when she talks on the telephone. She has a […]
The typical coffee drinker consumes an average of 3.1 cups per day. Thirty million adults pour specialty coffee concoctions down their gullets. And what is everyone else drinking? I’m not much of a coffee drinker. But I do enjoy a warm beverage at my desk, and easily refill my mug three times a day with […]
This post originally ran on the WordServe Water Cooler blog at www.wordservewatercooler.com, a terrific daily resource and encouragement for writers of all varieties. “Noveling.” On the day that I’m writing this, I’ve typed the word novelist several times and it keeps coming out noveling. “I’m a novelist” comes out “I’m noveling.” Well. There’s something […]
I was working at my mom’s dining room table and she was in the kitchen clanking around. Doing whatever, making kitchen noises. Then she came around the corner and said, “Here’s the change of plans. You didn’t know there was a plan, but here’s the change.” Plans in my mother’s retired Florida existence are always […]
One of the great surprises of social media for me has been the community of writers anxious to encourage each other. One of the writers I’ve gotten to know cyberly is Julie Cantrell. Her first book, Into the Free, released a couple of weeks ago, and I admire it so much. The book features a […]
Time for slow-pitch softball? Can it be? Last Sunday in church the person who organizes our church team announced it was time to get registered for the spring league we participate in. And by “we” I mean the people who play on knees that need surgery, get their faces smashed on the pitcher’s mound, and […]
Tomorrow is my mother’s birthday—number 86. (Whooping and hollering here, please.) She’s always been especially proud to share the day with Thomas Edison, and now she actually lives near his winter estate, which we visited together. Recently a woman in my church celebrated her ninetieth birthday. (You might remember Esther from here.) When I told […]
“The Debs.” Three other debut novelists found each other and then included me. So we are four. We all have our first releases on May 1. Our journeys to publishing have varied, but here we all are, facing an exhilarating and terrifying day. Exhilarating because, hey, our books are releasing! All our hard work—for years—will […]
