Writing Female Characters Set in the Past: Finding Agency
You want to write a women's fiction novel set in Victorian or Regency eras, or before, and your protagonist is an unmarried, independent woman, or at least independent in spirit if not entirely in body. To stay true to the historical frame, how do you write a female...
Write, because
Write because... You need it, like air The world needs a sane voice New ideas are the engine of change Change needs to be positive That trip you took around Wisconsin eating cheese will make people laugh Laughter is sorely missing in the world A friend needs cheering...
Hi Ho, Hi Ho…it’s off to work we go
Happy, intense absorption in any work, which is to be brought as near to perfection as possible, this is a state of being with God, and the men who have not known it have missed life itself.' - D. H. Lawrence Oh, my. How has work become drudgery for so many? Thank you...
Sun Blindsides Science Naysayers
Washington, DC—April 1st, 2018 It’s been months since the solar eclipse shadowed corridors of the American landscape, welcomed by the cheers of millions of onlookers, but the effects are not yet over. While scientists warned Americans not to look directly at the sun,...
Has Your Muse Packed Her Bags?
You know the feeling, fellow writer. You've done all the right things. She wanted you up by 5 a.m., before the dogs rose even, before the husband stopped snoring, before the neighbors rolled out their trash cans, and, by God, you did it, day after day. This is day...
A Yankee in King Cotton’s Court
Sustainability, as I tell students, is about the perseverance of hope through the manifestation of change. I recently returned from my first journey to the American South, to Mississippi, a place I'd regarded as one with as many tears in its cultural canvas as a...
Is LOHAS a Movement?
It's a big word, “movement.” It conjures up rhizomatic connections of like-mindedness, of collective spirit in motion toward a common goal or vision. It might be in the best interest of organizations that brand themselves as LOHAS to describe LOHAS as a movement...
Perseverance, Patience and Progress
I won a writing contest in September of 2012. As my jaw bounced up and off of the stage when the emcee announced my novel's title, my first thought was of me thirty years before shelving that manuscript thinking "everyone wants to be a writer." Someone had said those...
Putting the “Self” to Work in Sustainability
"It's all about you, baby." In the context of Conscious Capitalism (CC)--that intriguing notion that we can use the market economy to repair the social and environmental havoc we've wreaked using it in the first place -- that statement seems a wee crass. After all,...
Sustainability by Sustaining Communication
I am among those who celebrate the "onslaught" of information communication technologies (ICTs) and media channels and users, not because I have oodles more free time than the next woman to practice send-button finger exercises, but rather because of the possibilities...