I’m not quite clear how it got to be 2017, but here we are. Another year and a clean slate ahead of us.(Many of you may be relieved to hear that I’m not going to waste one more ounce of energy ranting about politics this year.) What will you write in 2017? Are you…
The Writing Life
Lake Arrowhead Writers Retreat
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 0 Comments
The spring Writers Retreat in Lake Arrowhead is coming up in March. A few spaces are still open. It’s limited to ten. Here’s the info: Come join us at the Writers Retreat in Lake Arrowhead March 17 -19th. Maybe you have a final draft to complete and need a quiet place to focus, or…
The Writing Life
A Driverless FedEx Truck & Other Tales
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 4 Comments
So let me tell you what’s been going on in my life. November was not wonderful. First of all there was the election that still makes me want to bang my head on my desk. Why, how? And I can’t move to Mexico – my original plan – because I’ve got these grandchildren I…
teaching writing
Saturday at Vromans
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 0 Comments
Come join us at Vromans this coming Saturday (12/10/16) 9:00 – noon for a writing workshop. We’ll be doing writing exercises and workshopping (if you have something you want to read for feedback please email me or leave a comment so I can schedule you in.) We meet the second Saturday of every month…
teaching writing
Rollercoasters & Caterpillar Goo
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 2 Comments
Here’s the rollercoaster of writing a book: Oh, it’s good! Oh, it’s boring! Oh oh! Awful! Wonderful! Up and down for months if not years. Sometimes you have to write a bad book to get to the good book. Sometimes you get breathless with anxiety and decide take up knitting or skate boarding or raising…
teaching writing
Bear Witness
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 4 Comments
Yesterday was a hard day. I was lucky though, I had a class to teach. A roomful of like minded people who wrote their way through tears and anger. Some of the writing exercises I had prepared a few days before turned out to be timely. A line from a Mary Oliver poem as a…
Terrific Books
A Gift From the Sea
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 9 Comments
God willing we’ll be able to exhale tomorrow. Meanwhile I’m rereading A Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh and feeling calmer. This book is amazing – first published in 1955 and still necessary reading. She writes about searching for a purity of intention, a singleness of eye, a central core to her life,…
Writing a Blog
What a Writer Does When Her Head is About to Explode
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 20 Comments
She writes about it. And that’s what this post is about today. The election. I swear the top my head is about to blow off. I know I’m not alone in this, and so many great journalists and commentators have been tackling the election mess I didn’t think I needed to add my two…
teaching writing
Discovering Your Story: A Writing Workshop
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 2 Comments
I’m excited about the new writing workshop that starts next Saturday (October 8th) at Vromans Bookstore in Pasadena. Whether you’re just beginning to write or have a manuscript in process, come join us on this new adventure. Below is the info about the workshop from Vromans website: Discovering Your Story: A Writing Workshop Saturdays,…
teaching writing
Naked in Public: Writing Workshops
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 9 Comments
I read somewhere that the two things people fear more than death are public speaking and writing. Now when you combine the two, getting up and reading what you’ve written in front of a bunch of people – well it’s a wonder that anyone ever has the nerve to take a writing workshop. After…
teaching writing
Upcoming: Writing Dangerously – or Otherwise
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 0 Comments
I’ll be teaching in La Canada at Flintridge Books with Victoria Zackheim and Anne Perry on Sunday October 2nd- ( www.WriteTeachers.com) and starting an ongoing workshop at Vromans in Pasadena on Saturday morning October 8th. Hope to see those of you living in that part of town at one or the other – or…
The Writing Life
My Old Lover
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 10 Comments
New York is like an old lover you go back to briefly. You know it can’t last, but oh my God – the old buzz is still there, the memories. I will always be in love with this city. The jazz-like rhythm walking down the streets, the smells, the sounds, the crazy energy, the wild…
