She Writes

This post is putting the horse before the cart in a way. On Thursday, May 23, the following post went out in the She Writes newsletter:

If you lost your baby mere weeks before it was to be born, what would you do? Perhaps more importantly, what would it do to you?

Return to Zero is the first film ever created with stillbirth as its central theme. It has an amazing cast (Minnie Driver, Paul Adelstein, Alfred Molina, Kathy Baker, and more), but it's still lacking distribution. So, in an effort to get this amazing film--based on a true story--into theaters, we here at She Writes are asking you not for money, but for a promise: that you will go to see it opening weekend when it shows in your community. Will you make the pledge to help this important film get off the ground? Click here to get an…

While reading through my first draft, one thing has become abundantly clear: What I have here isn’t a draft at all. What I have is a really, really detailed outline.

Part of the reason for this is that my main goal while I was writing was to just finish. I really wanted to get from point A to point B and wrap things up. While I was working I just kept pushing forward, trying to think of events that could occur to keep the story moving and grow these characters, until they reach closure at the end. Because my focus was just finishing, the writing and the story sort of suffered.

I realize that was a really pessimistic way to start this post, but I’m not feeling down about it at all! I knew when I finished that I wasn’t sitting on something brilliant or even very good. I was proud of myself for finishing my first draft of my first book, and when people ask me about it that’s what I say – it’s just a draft, and it needs some work, but I finished something, and that…

A few weeks ago, Girls Write Now held its first-ever annual benefit and awards.  It was a perfect evening--as authentic, inspirational and moving as the organization, and worthy of the girls and the wonderful professional women writers who serve as their mentors (like Alice Canick, pictured with her mentee, Paldon Dolma, here).  As the board chair, I was asked to say a few words.  But how could I convey the critical importance of this organization to the people in the room in just a few words?  I decided to do it by asking two questions.  First,  "Who in this room has had a mentor who changed his or her life?"  There was a show of hands, but by no means the majority of the attendees had been so lucky.…

A few weeks ago, my friend and former jogging partner Ellen Sweet sent me this snapshot that she had just discovered while scanning old photographs into her computer. I remembered the picture, and I may even have a copy of it somewhere, but it was something of a shock to see it illuminated on my computer screen. The shot probably dates from the early 1980s when I had first started running along with half of Manhattan. From the beginning Ellen and I challenged ourselves by entering races in Central Park– races for women only, which this image seems to memorialize. (I should say for the record that Ellen, thinner and lighter, always ran faster than I did.)  I think my personal best  was a 10 and one half minute mile. A person could well walk faster than that! Still, we were quite faithful…