I am thrilled to share my big news with you. Today I am launching Open Road Writing, my writing consulting business.
Round about the end of May, the idea for this business occurred to me, and I've been hard at work getting everything ready for today. For many years I've done freelance writing and editing jobs, and I've started to do a lot of manuscript reviews, too. When I hit on the name Open Road Writing, I knew I had to hang all of my writing hats on one peg.
Why Open Road Writing? I wanted a name that would bring together two parts of my life: my time on the east coast, and the too brief time I spent out west. The open road connotes possibilities, journeys, and adventures, which is what writing is to me.
I'm fortunate to have had valuable assistance in creating the site. Penny served as my web guru, answering endless e-mails. Chris created the ORW logo, taking my vague statements about the 40s and pick up trucks and turning them into just the right image. Scout graciously gave me permission to use one of her sensual photos; really, I can feel the heat coming off the road in her picture. Karen edited and advised throughout.
I hope you'll check the website often. I'll be posting weekly writing prompts there, as well as tips for business and student writers. I appreciate your taking a look, and I would love to chat with you about your writing needs.
Since I left New York in 2004, I've worn the same three pair of glasses: sunglasses for driving, regular glasses for movies and night driving, and reading glasses. Yesterday was my first eye exam in a while (I did go two years ago, but most of the appointment was taken up with the doctor's railing against English teachers. He and I are no longer seeing each other.), and I discovered that I am an anomaly.
My eyes are getting younger.
Seriously. At one point, my new doctor said that I have the eyes of a ten year old. I no longer need the two pair of glasses for distance. I have a slightly worse Rx for my readers (aren't they cute? And, yes, the lenses darken in the sun. I read outside a lot.), but my distance vision is nearly perfect. A long cry from where it was when I got my first pair of glasses in fifth grade. I wanted to be Meg from A Wrinkle in Time, so I was fine about the glasses, but still. They do get expensive.
Every Thursday night for over eighteen months, ending in early 2002, I had a date with a varied and somewhat eclectic group of people from widely different backgrounds to read James Joyce’s Ulysses aloud. Tackling this masterpiece of experimental fiction seemed too daunting a task to be accomplished on my own, but savoring the words, sentences, and images as part of a group was an exhilarating and enlightening experience. Every year on this day, I think back on my Ulysses group with fondness.
"...yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes."
I decided recently that my life would be simplified immensely if I wore a uniform. Not a polyester fast-food restaurant uniform, but one of my own making. Hence two of the same blouse. It has everything I like in a blouse: comfortable fit, Peter Pan collar, slightly puffed sleeves, pretty details. It looks just as nice with jeans as with a skirt. I can wear it to do everything except work out and garden, although I have done a wee bit of gardening in the white version. Risky, I know.
Dresses feel like uniforms to me. Diane von Furstenberg* was onto something with her iconic wrap dress**. Slip it on and go, and look fabulous to boot. I plan to do some sewing this weekend to see if I've found the dress I want to add to my little collection of vintage frocks-turned-uniforms. Stay tuned to see my results.
And just because I like a little interaction in the comments, will you tell me what your uniform or go-to outfit is?
*Dudes, she has her own comic book. Seriously. Also? If you go to the site, you get to hear Lauren Bacall speak one of her most famous lines.
**This is the one I want to own someday. When I have a spare $300 to spend on one frock. I know it will be worth every penny!
Every now and again, someone comes into my life and surprises me by making a huge impact. Here's a little story about one such someone who could use your help.
The scene: roadtrip to move from New York to New Mexico. August 2004.
I taught my last class for Mercy College the night we started our trip. Collected final projects, teared up at the lovely bon voyage speech my students made before they gave me a card and gift to send me on my next adventure. Nine o'clock and the destination was Nashville, TN to spend some time with my sister and her kids. We drove fifteen hours straight with a few fuel stops, an odd, barely remembered diner break for coffee, and a bad breakfast somewhere in the south.
Neal napped while I went with MB to run errands. "You have to check this out. We have a new yarn shop." She brought me to Threaded Bliss Yarns where I met Sheila and her beautiful Border Collie, Rudy. Those of you who know Sheila know what a dynamo she is. She had just opened her store on her fortieth birthday, and what a yarn shop! Her enthusiasm for color, yarn, and knitting imbued the place with a sort of magic. We chatted about the Taos Fiber Festival, and I confessed I hoped to learn to spin. I bought yarn, she wished me luck on my journey, and I continued on my own adventure.
A few months later, MB came out to help me move into my condo and to celebrate my birthday. "Sheila sent this," she said as she handed me a copy of Spin-off. "Sheila?" I was puzzled. "From the yarn store." I was so moved. I started to read Sheila's blog and thought she was just the coolest. Hers was the first blog I'd read, and I wondered if someday, maybe someday, I could start one, too.
Over the next few years, I did learn to spin, and I did start a blog. I have Sheila to thank for both. Whenever I visited MB, I'd make sure we had an hour or so to spend at the shop.
In 2007, Sheila sold the shop. On my next visit to TN, she and her fabulous husband Tim had dinner with MB and me. That's when I realized Sheila ought to have been one of my sisters, too. Or I should have been hers. Not long after, she called me to tell me news that was difficult to share: she has MS. I assure you, though, MS does not have her. Sheila is one tough woman, and she is handling this with grace and anger, a beautiful, inspiring combination. Visit her blog to read more about health care reform issues. You'll come away enlightened.
Now Sheila and Tim are facing some challenges with their beloved pets. Rudy, the yoga-practicing Border Collie, is going through his own illness, and those of us who love him are waiting anxiously to find out what it is. In the meantime, Sheila and Tim have entered him in the Eight o'Clock coffee contest (search for keyword Rudy). Please, readers, take a few minutes to vote "five cups" for Rudy. Once you've logged in the first time, you can easily vote every day. The prize money will truly make a difference for Rudy and his loving owners. Please let everyone you know in on this. Let's show Sheila the true power of the bloggers, okay? We all know what we can do!
My potholders for the swap are packaged up and on their way to Adrian. I used Tahki Cotton Classic and a C hook. What fun to return to crochet, my gateway craft! You can see more pictures here.
I've finished up a few books recently and would like to share reviews of two that I enjoyed. First is Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. I saw the PBS miniseries and liked it enough to want to read the book, which I did as an inexpensive Kindle download. As an added bonus, it is on my 1% Well-Read Challenge list. The novel is narrated by Mary, a young woman devoted to the true protagonist, Miss Mattie Jenkyns. The reader becomes engrossed in the doings of the little English village as it struggles to retain its comfortable manners in the face of impending modernity. A quiet book, the novel gives a glimpse into the complex layers that rest beneath the manners and fashions of the town. It was a pleasure to read each evening before I fell asleep.
The second book about which I want to tell you is The Women by T.C. Boyle. I read reviews of this and had downloaded a sample on the Kindle, so when I saw it at the library, I snatched it up. I take real satisfaction in being the first patron to read a new book at the library. I have no idea why; am I alone in this? The subject matter--Frank Lloyd Wright's scandalous love affairs--intrigued me. Who, after all, doesn't love a bit of gossip, even if it is fictionalized.
The novel is narrated by Tadeshi Sato, an American-educated Japanese architect who pays handsomely for the privilege of apprenticing with Wright at Taliesen. Tadeshi aims to stick with the facts, but he often injects his wry humor, typically through footnotes. The novel traces the roles of Wright's women, as well as his treatment of them and their treatment of him. The reader first meets Olgivanna Lazovich Milanoff, Wright's third wife. The second part examines Miriam Noel, Wright's free-thinking, drug-using second wife who becomes bitter as she watches Wright repeat his infidelity pattern, not with her this time, but with Olgivanna. The third section looks at Mamah, Wright's mistress whom Boyle portrays as the true love of Wright's life. Even as the novel focuses on Wright's women, it manages to create a rich world in which the reader gets a real sense of the weight of Wright's transgressions.
On every level, this is a book as finely crafted as a Frank Lloyd Wright house. Boyle removes Wright from the pedastal on which his talent has placed him and allows the reader to see him as a man. His passion and moodiness both enchant and alarm. Characters are round with a depth that reaches beyond the book. On a sentence level, the complexity of language and structure invites the reader to linger, even in the saddest moments of the book.
I'm about a third of the way through Trainspotting, which I'm reading for my book group. If that were not the case, I think I'd stop. I'll let you know what I think when I finish it, though.
