Peas with Honey and Other Easy Peasy Online Writing Workshops

If you like to write, or used to write, or have always wanted to write, one of the best ways to go about it is to write. Pencil, paper, write. This can possibly lead to staring at the blank page and getting up for a snack. 

One of the best ways to go about jump-starting that part of your brain is to write to prompts, and one of the best ways to go about that is to write in a small group so you don't go snack-hunting, answer your phone, or hop up to let the dog out and stop writing before you really start.

Peas with Honey is an online ZOOM writing workshop that is one of my favorites. It's a small group, takes place on a few Sundays a month, 10:00 a.m. Eastern U.S. Time, 5:00 p.m. Athens, Gr time. It's run by a lovely writer named Bibi, who I met at a big in-person workshop in Greece a very long time ago. I've been to her house, met her husband who also writes, met her kitty named Whippy, and she made me a gluten-free chocolate torte I still dream about. The two-hour class costs whatever you want to donate. Easy Peasy. 

Like all of the workshops I attend, it follows the Amherst Writers and Artists method. In a nutshell this means writing to prompts. Everything is assumed to be fiction. If the writers choses to share and read aloud, the listener shares what works for them. These are first drafts so criticism isn't part of the feedback. You might not think that would work but it actually works beautifully. I've attended classes following the AW&A method for many years and it is magic. 

Below is one of the prompts I wrote to. I'm sharing it with you so you can get the gist of how this prompt writing works. For me these timed stories tend to be comprised of bits and pieces of something I know to be true because you're basically world-building on the fly. For this bit I included the truth of living with chronic vertigo and vestibular migraine. Remember, though, this is FICTION. That means I made it up!

Andy Warhol designed the Campbell's Soup Label

Peas with Honey Prompt: Someone tripping into Andy Warhol’s Triple Elvis Painting

by S.R. Karfelt

 

No, thank you. No, thank you for the fifteen minutes of fame. No, thank you for being the klutz moron who wrecked an Andy Warhol painting.

You know how you ask kids what do you want to be when you grow up? Some kids say they want to be famous.

            Morons.

            Idiots.

I was so not that kid.

And I’m not that adult.

But let’s say even if I was like that and wanted to be famous, it sure as hell wouldn’t be for something STUPID.

            Who sets out to win the Darwin Award?

Fame is a dangerous quest. Wishing for fame without parameters or a game plan to be an artist like Warhol, or a scientist who eradicates Tuberculosis for good, or an Olympian. Just fame? Here, take it. I don’t want people to know my name.

Although, I wouldn’t mind if more of them knew the name of my books. I digress.

Who wants to be the NIMROD who steps backwards off the edge of the Grand Canyon while taking a selfie? Or the skydiver who, oops, forgot to put ON the chute? Be careful what you wish for and I most certainly did NOT wish for Fame!

I get these *ucking vestibular migraines is all. They are the nastiest sh*t of all migraines and since ALL migraine is nasty sh*t—that is saying something!

They’re random but sometimes light gets them going. Fluorescents. Industrial or Big Box Store lighting. Or, let’s get to it, MUSEUM lighting. That’s why I had sunglasses on inside a museum. That’s why my glasses always have dark filters in the lenses. Not because I’m faking cool. No one with chronic intermittent vertigo has anything in common with cool.

We’re the NUMBSKULLS that trip off the elevator or turn to look and stumble back a few steps. If you crash-land coming off a moving walk-way at an airport for instance, and you lose your balance and your bearings and your carry-on luggage scatters all over blocking other people. Absolutely no one goes, “Hey, she looks cool.”

They say, “Hey, someone’s been at the airport bar, or hey, weed is legal in New York isn’t it?”

Come on. High? Intoxicated? Hah! You don’t drink or take drugs with vertigo. Those side effects are built-in to your everyday. You just try not to fall into an Andy Warhol at the godd*mn museum is all. So rack this one up to another fail and I'll f*ck off on out of here.

 

A Few of my Favorite Things 2025

These are a few of my favorite things from the past year. 

First being an eye massager. It might sound weird, it did to me when I received not one but TWO as gifts!

They don't massage your eyeballs. They gently press around them and come heated or both heated and cooled. It helps my dry eye and migraine before it really gets going, and even some of my vertigo. 

This is the first thing I've found that helps any of those things (except eye drops do help with dry eyes, if you're not allergic to them!). Since receiving them, I've given many as gifts. They're wonderful! They come in various brands and styles, so look at your choices and chose what works for you! 

No, I don't get kickbacks for any of these things. This is just a short list of things that really worked for me this past year!

Another favorite thing is a dog from the SPCA. (A cat even, if you roll like that!) It's a wonderful organization and this little girl in the lilac sweater is my latest favorite doggo. 

Yes, yes, she's not a thing. She's a person and thanks to the SPCA she's part of my family now!

Any of the online writing workshops from Peas with Honey. They're for any level of writing, including beginners. I've been taking these the past few months and I love them.                                                                                                                                                     It's always a real commitment for me to give up a couple hours on the weekend, yet I love every minute I spend writing with this teacher, Bibi. It's prompt writing using the Amherst Writers and Artists method, which is a positive reinforcement and inclusive type of writing workshop. It inspires writers to dig deep and put it on the page using fun and clever prompts.                                                                                                    I highly recommend Peas with Honey. It's fun and inspiring. It's done via ZOOM a couple hours about once a week. You can sign up for just one class or whatever works for you.                                                                                                                                         If you have any questions you'd like to ask me about it, please contact me through this website. I've written with this teacher for years and highly recommend this group. Classes have a bit of an international flair and they offer a variety of class types. 

It's September for a while

 

Here in the shire, September is the best month. The forests are still green, with only a few traitor branches sneaking in some autumn color. The skies are pristine blue with floofy white clouds that look like they fell out of a storybook. Our thermals are the best in the world, so sometimes you'll see a glider drifting soundlessly in circles over the low-slung hills. 

Mostly all I want to do this month is play frisbee with my favorite Golden Retriever. It's a heavy yellow and blue water disc that I slam to the ground so it'll roll far and Rupert can pretend he's chasing a rabbit into the woods. There's no real limit to how long Rupert and I can keep at this. He's one of those dogs who will NEVER EVER stop playing, and I literally hurt my arm from throwing that frisbee for hours and days. I've had to learn to throw it well with my other arm, or not play as much, and we can't have that. Playing with a dog is an excellent way to put off sitting in front of the computer and writing. As much as I love to write, I love to spend perfect days with a dog too.

My last book that came out was a Chicken Soup for the Soul Cat Stories one. I got to do a zoom call with some of the other writers and I have to share that it was a delight to see all those zoom boxes with writers looking out, most holding cats. This summer I've taken classes and read books and made art for fun,

and I did whatever Rupert felt like doing, too!

Ten Years of Greece, How do I Love Thee?

 

For the past ten years I've been going to Greece every summer. Except that year when no one was allowed to travel, I spend weeks to months packing, planning, and plotting my journey. Then a few days travel there, followed by a few weeks being there, and wrap it up with a few days traveling back home. 

The odd thing is that every year I go to the exact same place. Most years I go to write with Women Reading Aloud. Though I arrive early and stay long after. I've never been to Santorini, or any of the popular islands. Often I'll check out places or sights on the mainland during my journey: Athens, Kalamata, Meteora. My favorite museum—The Acropolis Museum—my favorite hotel in Athens—the Airport Sofitel—my favorite Greek Salad.

Usually the only islands I see are Skiathos and Skopelos in the Northern Sporades and only those because I need to pass them on my way to Alonissos, my favorite island. Maybe it's indicative that I don't need to see all of the islands in Greece to pick a favorite. I've been married to the same man for forty years. I didn't have to meet them all to know he was the one for me. I know when something works for me. This man. This island. Dark chocolate. I'm happy. Sure, I like to try different trips, different places at times. This place, however, doesn't change. As long as I can get myself through the long and arduous journey, that's where I'm going. 

Know what I do there? Other than write with WRA, I mean? Nothing. I go to my favorite beaches, drift in the sea, lay under an umbrella or write on top of the stones while laying on the beaches. Sometimes I sit by the sea in a taverna with a cup of cappuccino, fresh watermelon juice, or water and I don't even think. I'm just there. Once, a particularly annoying person kept saying, "Oh, you go there to meet a man." Please, girlfriend, I have a man. I'm not in love with another man. I'm in love with an entire ISLAND, with an entire PLACE, COUNTRY, SEA. Some people do not understand love at all. Greece is very easy to love. 

     

My Dandelion Sea

This time of year my yard is a sea of dandelions. I've taught Roper to eat them. Yes, they're edible. On sunny days when they open wide. I pick them and holding tightly to the stem, I use my thumb to flick the head off. The yellow bud flies through the air and doggo jumps to nab it. The first time his owner saw me do it she wasn't too thrilled.

"It's safe," I promised. "Google it."

Roper's Mom calls my yard a Golden Retriever yard. He can run run run. We spend hours playing frisbee with an Aerobie. It's a round disc with a wide hole in the middle. I toss it on its side so it rolls away. Roper chases it like it's purposely running away from him—every Retriever instinct in high-gear. This is only one of the things I love to do instead of writing, or cleaning, or doing paperwork of any sort. 

Nerf Dog Super Soaker

The Aerobie isn't for dogs. If I look away for a moment he'll chomp on it and break its little bird bones and it won't roll so well after. Sometimes we use the heavy duty Nerf Dog Super Soaker. Golden's are easy to please doggos. All you have to do to make them happy is never look away and never stop playing with them. Whereas kids are just waiting for you to look away so they can get your scissors and scotch tape without any adult supervision. 

When you look up, your sparest of spare rooms looks like this.

Fortunately that room has a door that you can just close while you play frisbee with Roper in your dandelion sea. 

 

 

Every Introvert Could Use a Moat

Here I go again. Traveling to the ends of the earth to write. Granted most air travel feels like you're heading for the ends of the earth anymore. Add in travel from a little commuter airport and it's hardly an exaggeration. Especially since it'll take me about fifty-six hours of travel to get to Alonissos, Greece. We're currently living in interesting times but it's never been an easy journey. 

The reason I go to Alonissos is to attend a writing workshop. The reason I go early and stay later is because it's my absolute favorite hideaway. It's not fancy like more popular Greek islands. It's also possible to go on a budget. It's a marine park for the protected Monk Seals. The water is crystal clear and so blue. It makes the best moat on earth. Your writing will rarely be interrupted here.

For as long as I can feasibly stay, I go there and write. Sure, I write at the beach sometimes. Sometimes I hike up to Old Town and write at a café at the top of the island. My moat looks different up there.

During the lockdown I figured I'd get plenty of writing done at home. The truth is I didn't really. I spent a lot of the lockdown taking online classes and worrying. Most of us probably did the second thing. Last year I took myself to Alonissos to write even though the pandemic kept my writing workshop from happening in 2021. After missing it in 2020, the island called to me and I had to go. I missed my fellow writers but I wrote almost non-stop.

Obviously a moat isn't necessary to write but for this introvert peace and quiet is. I get that by running away and focusing only on writing. Nobody is going to interrupt from Alonissos. Sure, I could get that other places and on occasion I have. But I'm telling you an ocean makes an excellent moat and the Aegean Sea makes a gorgeous one. I highly recommend it.

Coffee or Tea? Nescafe or Chai?

 

Coffee is better with a view

It's still snowy blowy winter here and my house in encased in acres of what appears to be glaciers at the moment. While I like to imagine that I'm enjoying a nice café latte seaside, mostly I'm wrapped in a plaid blanket, wearing extra thick socks, and sitting right beside a space heater while I have my morning coffee.

Thing is, I kind of hate coffee

The reason I'm drinking it is that I'm currently trying to break my chai latte habit so I still fit into coach seating come spring. One chai latte wouldn't be a problem, but I also love iced-chai. That wouldn't be a problem either especially since I switched to almond milk but I like a venti-size while I'm writing. And when I'm reading. I like it when I'm driving. Or in the book store. The problem is more. I just like more. With a book. When I cook. I like it here or there. I like it anywhere. 

Barnes & Noble makes excellent chai

Starbucks at the Athens Airport makes excellent chai
Heck, I make excellent chai!

I had to be stopped

Realizing all the hiking and working out came to little with my sugar habit I dug through my drawer of herbal teas for an alternative. I came across sample tubes and a couple tins of Nescafe coffee that I picked up in Athens last September. Despite not normally liking coffee, I tend to drink it when I'm in Greece. Plus it doubled as a souvenir for Hubby. He's all about the coffee but didn't like it so stealing it back was fair.

Am I right about coffee with a view?

Outside of Athens, when I get to the tiny island I love to write at every summer, chai latte is hard to come by. Besides sitting at a café beside the Aegean Sea I suddenly like coffee. That's mostly because when I'm in Greece I pretty much like everything. I especially like the little design swirled into the top of my drink. I like to sit at an outside table with a cup. It reminds me how the only time I ever saw my grandmother not moving was when she sat at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee. Only, if I'm going to drink it my preference is a side of sparkling water and olives to get that coffee taste out of my mouth.

It's not so nostalgic when I'm huddled over the space heater but I'm up to an entire half a cup of Nescafe coffee every morning (mixed with about a quarter cup of steamed milk). It's like a Hollywood production making my half cup of coffee and while I don't like it, I don't hate it either. 

The view is meh and so is the drink but caffeine...

Yes, I miss my chai, and yes, I occasionally make myself one, but mostly I have coffee. Thanks to that coffee I think I'm well on my way to a roomier coach seat. Well, thanks to my boring coffee AND the stairmaster, but that killer beast piece of exercise equipment is a whole other necessary change. 

Me and Microsoft Excel—The Fast Easy Way to Keep Track of Writing Finances

 

Using Excel

Udemy dot com offers a Microsoft Excel class for Beginners to Advanced. It has over 200,000 positive reviews. For years I've tried to avoid Excel simply because I never took the time to learn how to use it properly. The worst part is that I was business manager for an engineering company and used it in my job but when I was finally able to make writing my full-time job, I quit using Excel just because I could. I decided it'd be easier to keep track of everything in handwritten ledgers. It wasn't easier.

After years of accumulating piles of good old-fashioned paperwork, I had to admit to myself that everything would actually be simpler if I used Excel again. Step one, I decided, was to LEARN how to use it properly so I didn't dread it. That's how I found the Udemy class. 

The class I'm recommending is by Kyle Pew, Office Newb. Every single lesson is basic (my speed) and thorough. I keep a laptop open beside my computer through each lesson, so I can practice without split screens. 

Recently I mentioned this Excel class to a group of writers. There was a collective groan, EXCEL, NO! It was the old, "Don't make us do math" mentality. My mentality. Yet the fact is, keeping track of your finances via Excel is the easy way. Sorry to be a realist. You know I abhor reality. I have the soul of a fiction writer. Yet what I've learned is that it's an undeniable fact that the best way to deal with keeping track of writing expenses is succinctly. That way you get it over with as quickly as possible. 

Excel can help you with that.

When you write, or simply live, you have to keep track of income and expenses. You have to do the math. It's easier on everyone if you keep good track of expenses and income and know the bottom line in your writing life and in the real world. You'll see in plain old black and white and red what works and what doesn't. It helps you make smart decisions, like what to spend your time and energy on and what is a waste of resources. That's actually important in both worlds—Fiction and Non-Fiction. 

Me Writing a Screenplay and Maybe Next Year I'll Become an Astronaut or a Doctor

 

You know that scene in Legally Blonde where the professor says, Do you think she woke up one morning and said, I think I'll go to Law School today? Well that reminds me of me deciding, Oh, hey, I think I'll write a screenplay of the Gummy book. That's what I call Nobody Told Me Love in the Time of Dementia, my memoir about me, my mother-in-law, and dementia. 

After that decision my reality became a tsunami of new information to learn, software to choose/purchase/master, skills to miraculously acquire, and incredible friends who pointed me toward incredible opportunities that I don't begin to deserve. 

Why I thought this was doable is downright foolish. That's exactly the attitude that got me writing books to begin with. One day I really did wake up and decide that after decades of writing stories in secret, I was going to finish an entire novel and figure out how to get it published. 

That's all well and good. Finishing the book is the famously difficult part. It is to be applauded. Yet getting it published was a whole new difficulty. Publishing is a business, much to the colossal disappointment of countless writers like myself, and you actually have to learn it and do the work. Yes, after all the effort of writing the book, then you have to learn about the publishing business.

You might think that would have given me a clue about writing a screenplay

Why I thought that adapting a memoir to a screenplay would be basically a formatting issue is a tribute to my clueless optimism. (My muse is whispering, dumb dumb dumb.) I'm still trying to figure out the screenwriting software. Sure, I wrote one screenplay start to finish already, but no, I still haven't really figured out the software. 

I'm a visual learner. I had the story in my head. I had the movie in my head. I got copies of other screenplays and I tried to duplicate the formatting. Sorta, kinda.

Hey, I took a Masterclass and read books about it!

It's still clueless and precisely how I began the novel writing process so long ago. (Wait, how do you format dialog? *opens a book to see*) Ignorance really is bliss. That's why I enjoy writing first drafts so much, before you have to do it all again properly. Anything is possible when you first begin writing and before you start the slow climb to publication/reality. Over time I've developed a method. This is my secret: I turn shitty first drafts into novels with the tenacity of one of those whales attacking boats off the coast of Spain. BAM. BAM. This is MY boat. BAM. BAM. Do as I demand. BAM. BAM. Surrender, mortal!

My technique is to write a thing and then continuously rewrite it as I storm the seas until I find a way to make it a real book. I suppose that'll work for screenplays too. 

Or not.

The book Nobody Told Me Love in the Time of Dementia is a book I rewrote eighteen times. Keep in mind it's a true story. You might think that would have given me an edge and cut down on all the rewriting. It didn't. Who knows how many times I'll rewrite the screenplay? I keep working and rewriting until I find my flow. Tenacity is my superpower. 

Maybe by the time I'm finished rewriting the Nobody Told Me screenplay, I'll have figured out the

screenwriting software. (It worked for Microsoft Word.) More importantly, as I attempt this new technique, I'm really building some unused writing muscles, plus I'm networking and learning as I go. This month I began another screenwriting class. MOOC classes are my favorite way to learn new skills. 

If publishing is big business, movies/television/plays are a freaking Goliath/Amazonian/Giant! 

Tenacity looks a lot like those whales. It might not make sense to onlookers, but my muse and I know exactly what we're doing. (Banging our heads against the bottom of a boat, right? Surrender, mortal!)

This Summer I made a Greek Alley in my Own Backyard—newsletter

 

This summer didn't go as planned for anybody. It reminds me of that essay about planning a holiday in Italy and winding up in Holland. Only in our scenario there is some pestilence there too, in the form of a pandemic. Holland isn't flashy like Italy, but it's a nice place. Kind of like being home for months and months isn't a bad thing, and since I couldn't take my writer trip to Greece, I built my own Greek alley at home. Lemons to lemonade, right? My big thrill recently was getting a refund from United. Remember they're the airline that dragged that doctor off a flight? Fly the friendly skies my eye. I've spent many hours on the phone with them. They're not my favorite people, so I felt a bit like Rocky doing his victory laps when I finally wore them down. Hope, patience, and low expectations are my superpowers this summer. Okay, hope and low expectations are. I'm still working on patience (and I'm sick of waiting for it). Let's be real here. I only have low expectations when it comes to housework and paperwork. But I've got hope! I definitely have hope! Yeah, hope is my superpower. Recipe for an at-home Greek alley: Use farm stand plants and the sad remnants of last winter's grocery store herbs. Get ALL the clearance sale lavender from Lowe's, potting soil, and new pots. Voila.  It was fun until I got tired of watering everything. So I found them new homes with better plant parents this month, and picked all the herbs.  What's your answer when someone asks you how're you doing? Are you in the It-Could-Be-Worse column? Couldn't-Be-Worse column? Mr. Brightside one? All of the above within a ten minute time-frame?  ME TOO! That said, I don't think anyone's eye is going to stop twitching until we admit at least to ourselves what we're really feeling. For instance I'm feeling anxiety, frustration, fear, disappointment, discouragement, and contentment all at the same time. Can you tell I've discovered the Dr. Marc Brackett/Brene Brown podcast about Emotional Intelligence? If you're struggling (and who isn't), I wanted to share how much it's helped me to carve out time and space to sit quietly. (Away from the news.) Maybe it'll help you too. There's also the classic Oatmeal comic take on why all the conflicting data is driving us nuts. Matthew Inman has a great way of getting to the root of the problem.   When reality takes my words, another thing that helps me is sketching and making collages in my journal. I also do it during ZOOM meetings. Don't tell. This summer I read through old journals. It's been great for spotting bad habits and reminding myself how wonderful life is.

My phone has 63,192 photos on it. I take pictures of beautiful things. That helps too. As Louis Armstrong said, "What a wonderful world." He never said it's an easy world. My little olive tree. An evening walk. A postcard I sent. A sunset here in the shire. It helps me to document every bit of wonderful.

Playing helps too. Sometimes I find a kid to play with and make art with. It justifies all my water balloons, stickers, chalk, and the kaleidoscope collection.  This summer I've rediscovered the library. It makes me read faster because I have to return those books. I also share my books and am gifted more in return. Life is good. My favorite reads this summer have been the often mentioned book Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates,  Madeleine L'Engle's collection of short stories The Moment of Tenderness, and War with the Newts by Karel Capik. I put my reviews on my blog and cannot recommend them more highly. A couple summers ago I discovered Eugenia Gerontara. I love her uplifting whimsical world. This year I ordered a couple more pieces of her art and sent her so many I LOVE YOUR WORK messages that she invited me to visit her studio in Athens! Believe me I will visit ASAP after COVID. When I can get there. If her work speaks to you, check it out online. She has an ETSY store too. I had my pieces personalized. The Little Red Riding Hood pieces are wonderful. I love Little Red swallowing the Big Bad Wolf. I love him sleeping with Grandmother. That one reminds me of Hubby and me. Don't tell. I'm making myself stop with all the photos. We didn't even get into me feeding gluten-free bread to the chipmunks Hubby caught in his catch and release traps. Apparently hundreds of chipmunks are a problem. They like gluten-free bread and I'm pretty sure they run all the way back to my house when he releases them a few miles from here. Hail to the bird using my hanging flowers to build a nest on my front porch. Hail to the hummingbird who sits in my tiny olive tree. Hail to ZOOM classes, books, and summertime. It's not what I planned, but what's not to love? So, how you doing?  "You're only going to be as good as the stuff you surround yourself with." ~Austin Kleon Writer: Stephanie Karfelt/S.R. Karfelt/Saffi Karfelt Specialty: Seeing the bright side  Aspirations: Backing up all my photos

My Balcony on Alonissos is Magic but The Floor of My Closet Kinda Rocks Too—What Matters Most

At the end of the book Me Before You by JoJo Moyes the main character goes to Paris to sit at a table in an outdoor cafe and experience something profound. I'd tell you what it was, but aside from her acquiring the resources to do it I didn't get it. 

It's not that sitting in an outdoor cafe in a foreign country can't be great, it's a lot of fun. It's not that you can't experience personal growth there, because I think travel is great that way. You see another culture, you get a bigger perspective of the world, you endure the humiliation of air travel. Travel is a great growth experience.

Until 2015 the bulk of my travel was engineering or writing conferences. There was the rare trip across the border into Mexico, and many times I got dragged to Canada to watch my family fish. I usually sat in a cabin under a mosquito net and wrote. But in 2015 I started exploring places I'd read about and always wanted to go see.

It is super cool to sleep on a houseboat in Amsterdam, take a train in Germany, climb inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, or visit Stonehenge. But the ugly truth is sometimes travel is boxed and shallow like a mega mall or amusement park. The same trinkets made in China are sold to tourists in many places. The same photos show up on Instagram—with fast food places, ugly buildings, and tons of tourists carefully cropped out of the shot. The same McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken are nearly everywhere. 

As Mr. Brady so profoundly put it, "Wherever you go there you are." It's not about the place. It's about you. From my point of view a great many tourists don't even care what they're looking at. I've found that if I wait patiently, like an entire ten minutes, that the latest ferry-load or bus-load or ship-load of tourists will clear out of a site, heading for snacks or the next big thing and I can take some epic photos without zillions of people milling about.

That's not always the case. Sometimes those ship-loads of tourists are timed exactly ten minutes apart.

The point is if you're not at a place in your life when you CAN travel, I'm going to go against the crowd here and tell you that you might not be missing as much as rumored. In this day and age you can research a place in-depth and learn about it. I did that old school for places like the Colosseum, The Forum, The Pyramids, and the Acropolis long before the opportunity to go there came along.

Wait for it. Make sure you want it. 

Sure June isn't summer without the Strawberry Moon and sitting beneath a starry sky writing on my balcony in Alonissos, but I think it's fifty years of longing that make Greece so magical for me. 

When I started writing with true intention to get my work published, I did it sitting on a bench with a pencil and paper in my bedroom with the door shut. When I want absolute quiet I like to find a spot on the rim of the Grand Canyon and sit there, somewhere away from the crowds. Sometimes I find that quiet walking in the woods at night. Often it's simply when I'm writing in my messy office.

On busy days before I wrote full-time, my breaks came about when I slid to the floor of my closet. I'd hide there and listen to my own breath as long as I could get away from it.

For me, a person who is interested in most everything, it's the quiet that I cherish.

Many times people in Greece have asked me what the heck I do on the quiet island of Alonissos for a month. I could see Santorini, Crete, or Mykonos! they say.

They don't get it. I know what I long for and I wonder, do they? Do you? Therein lies your magic.