Her Beautiful Brain
“A daring and ambitious memoir that bestows unexpected rewards on the reader.” –Seattle Times
“Unflinching, tragic and compassionate.” –Shelf Awareness
I’ve lived with the loss of my mom, and the fear of Alzheimer’s, for a long time now. I understand that I am stuck with this particular fear; yours may be cancer or heart disease. But I also understand its value: which is to continually remind me that I have no idea what the next day or decade might hold. Now is the time for me to do all that I feel called most urgently to do.
I am my mother’s daughter. Like her, I would prefer to keep traveling under my own steam and enjoying the view along the way. Like her, I would rather my brain not get all wrapped up in a big tangle of ropes. But hers did, and mine might too.
Up Next
April 19–May 24, 2023: Introduction to Memoir Writing, IN-PERSON, Seattle Central College/ Continuing Education. Six weekly classes. 5:30-7pm. (Note: I will teach this class virtually in late fall 2023 or January 2024.)
May 6, 2023 at Hugo House: A 3-hour, IN-PERSON seminar: Finding Your Own True Voice. Registration is open.
English Class
One recent Tuesday morning, I held up two laminated photos: one of hot dogs, drizzled artfully with mustard and catsup; the other of pepperoni pizza. “Which do you like better?” I asked C, a new [...]
Sixty-six
“Good evening,” said a silver-haired woman in creamy linen, as she floated past me with her dapper husband towards the veranda of the El Mirador restaurant. They had a dinner reservation; several waiters hurried to [...]
Fallow
The trick, we both knew, was not to think too hard. My husband and I dropped our towels. We ran right in, like five-year-olds, and dunked under the waves, like clumsy grownups. We stumbled out, [...]
You Who Know
Who knew that one of the central themes of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro is droit du seigneur, the feudal “lord’s right” granting the lord of a medieval European manor “sexual relations with servant brides [...]
About Ecstasy
I-90 Tunnel, Seattle “You have to love the writing process,” people say, and that is true. But what has always made me chafe against that statement is the implication that the process should [...]
Battle Scars
One month shy of the middle of 2021, I came across a faded sign tacked to a post in front of a ridiculously tall tree. “BATTLE SCARS,” it said at the top. Then, this: “In [...]