Month: September 2019

I just started reading Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” and a passage from the preface resonated with me: “Now I think it’s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child – What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something and that’s the end.”

Driving alongside the Pacific Ocean in Kauai, I listened to a radio show talking about the positive effects of water. Not just the benefits of drinking water, but also seeing it, being in it, and listening to the sounds of waves lap the shore. One of the positive effects discussed on this show was boosting creativity. I don’t know why that revelation surprised me. Most writers I know live near oceans, lakes, and rivers.

Every Thursday from 5:30 to 7:00 PM I join author Kent Zimmerman in teaching a class on writing at the California Men’s Facility (CMF) in Vacaville, California.

I’m currently enjoying a long overdue vacation on a tropical island. I brought a notebook, pen, and laptop. They’re always with me, like a security blanket. But it’s hard to think of murder and mayhem while I’m staring at waves crashing on a shore, listening to the surf, and trying to turn off my brain for a while.

Anybody there?

The other day I was trying to come up with a word (and it would be fabulous if I could remember what that word was) and I realized there are certain gaps in the English language that need to be filled. So I asked my fellow Miss Demeanors: Are there any words for things that you think should exist but don’t?