There is a Mary Engelbreit card that says, “We are always the same age inside.” It’s a sweet idea, and I’ve given the card to friends approaching their decade birthdays–30, 40, 50. Then my dad told me, when he was in his sixties, “I am still the exact same inside, like I was when I … More Enthusiasm is the Fountain of Youth
Emilie Loring wrote to her editor from a Maine hotel: Beautiful surroundings. Table excellent. Very well managed. Music twice daily. So far the guests appear to be of the “Proper Bostonian” type, the season guests, I mean. No social hostess. Nothing planned for the entertainment of guests like card parties or tournaments–that … More Beautiful Surroundings. Book on its Way.
Yesterday, I visited a state park where my sisters and I played as kids. It was private land then, a park created by a retired couple and shared, for free, with the public. The wife even crocheted tiny dresses onto tiny dolls and sold them for only a nickel. I still have mine. The park was given to the … More When You Share the Things You Love
I am spending a couple of weeks at the cottage where I read many of my Emilie Loring books when I was a kid. My grandparents bought it nearly sixty years ago, a cheery, little cottage on the edge of a crystal clear, pine-tree-lined, Wisconsin lake. Grandma belonged to the same generation as Emilie’s children, accustomed … More It Was Easy to Dream at the Lake
Yesterday, I spent the day querying literary agents, telling them about my book, trying to capture in one page the essence of the last fourteen years’ evolution of this project. It’s impossible. There are too many reasons, provocations, insights and experiences that one has on the way to a goal. And there is more to it … More Make a little turn, and optimism fills the sails
I think about Emilie Loring’s writing life. She wrote every day at the Athenaeum, had tea with her friends, then went home to her husband, hobbies, and social life. Her writing was carefully compartmentalized, but it was also regularly scheduled. I think about how she managed to balance everything she wanted to do, everything she … More An Abundance of Time for Pleasure
I knew very little about sea glass until two summers ago. I had seen it in magazines, mostly pastel blues and greens, and I love those colors. I looked for pieces on beaches I visited, but Waikiki and Santa Monica yielded none, and over the years, I collected only a few, small pieces of frosty-white, … More Sea Glass and Storytelling
The Emilie Loring Collection 