Unbelievably stoked to bring two of my most successful @fledglingwritingworkshops classes together into one mega-productive essay writing workshop for @writingworkshopsofficial this summer. Turn your personal experiences into impactful, publishable essays with me, get ready for submission season whether you’re an old hat or have never published anything, and let’s change the world one essay at a time. Sound good? Sign up through the Writing For The Moment link in my bio.
Your voice matters.
#writingcommunity #writingworkshop #essaywriting #publishingsupport
I couldn’t let this memory go unwritten. I like to think she would have wanted me to tell it. I hope you’ll read it and be reminded that we all have tiny chances every day to be somebody’s hero. Find it in my bio.
Thanks to @huffpost editor @noahmichelson for helping me share the big impact of this small moment with #catherineohara
Last picture is bb Sammi in 2011, just after deciding to move to NYC after graduation and to shoot my shot as a writer. 🗽
📸 by @nikkibetteker !!!
☁️ For my 35th birthday I decided to gift myself new author photos. I had a vision that would encompass my body of work, which is always guided by the water cycle—the clouds and the ocean they return to again and again. I chose Coney Island, the site of my mom’s childhood and a character that can’t be separated from our family lore or the joint memoir we wrote in an attempt to come to terms with it. I found a dream photog and booked it. When it came time to do it though I thought, who do you think you are? The moment I saw these, I remembered.
I’m stunned by how well @julesandfilm was able to capture the “me” of it all with these, along with the essence of the book I’ve been working on with my mom for the last five years. Next week I plan to start querying our memoir, and I’m so glad for this reminder of how right and true to myself this project has always felt even when it’s a slog. 📚 📚 📚
Evidence of writer fuel consumption ☕️ and my busy street (which I love)
#writingawestern #ontheeastcoast #stephenking #novelwriting #writinginspiration
I only look sad because I’m really putting my main character through it. I swear I’m having fun. 🤠
#stephenkingchallenge #writinginspiration #writinglife #novel
“I believe the first draft of a book…should take no more than three months, the length of a season…
I like to get ten pages a day, which amounts to 2,000 words.” - Stephen King
À la the King, I’m going to write 2,000 words a day until my novel is finished. Every day (except for one a week) I’ll post a short clip of me writing.
I’m doing this to keep myself accountable and because I thrive on a challenge, even though posting daily feels incredibly cringey. Even still, I watch these kinds of series myself with admiration.
I very much think of life in terms of seasons. I’m sending my finished memoir out into the world so it can find its way to publication. If it’s true that the only way to get over a relationship is to find another, it feels like the right season to turn to my first love fiction and the long-patient novel in my drawer. I’m about to start working with a cohort of novelists in my Fully Fledged book incubator, but first I want to prove to them — and myself — that you can spit out a whole draft with enough focus and commitment.
A professor in my MFA once scoffed when I said, “I’d like to finish a draft of my novel this semester.”
“Why hope?” she said. “Just do it.”
And I did. I wrote the whole damn book.
I have hundreds of pages of notes and scenes for this novel, and now it’s time to wrangle it all into a continuous draft. It’s the season of Canary Song y’all, starting today. 🐴📔🤠
#stephenking #cringe #writingchallenge #amwriting
Mother's Day is coming this Sunday and we will celebrate the women who take on the profound role of mothering children. For many, it's a role that dissolves the women we knew ourselves to be. You suddenly become your child's mom, and nothing else. But the people who remember the person we were *before* can be our lifeline. Read Sammi LaBue's account of how her friends without kids never stopped seeing who she really was at the link in bio.
Still not on the email list? You’re going to miss out!!! BUT, here are some fun workshops, events, book clubs, author visits and MORE coming up! Go to katonahreadingroom.com to RSVP, find out more, and get on the newsletter list! #events #westchester #katonah #coffeeshop #bookstore
So glad to be emerging from hard, cold days. Here’s a random smattering of bright spots from the start of the year—a reminder that it’s all good, even when it’s bad—as we carry on into the welcoming arms of spring.
🌦️🌸🫂
My sweetest baby boy. My hunky guy. A little more than two weeks ago I lost one of the most precious things in my life. As soon as I locked eyes with Oscar I knew I’d been chosen as his mama, a responsibility I fought for the privilege to have and truly never took for granted. He was too full of magic. People may have seen him as a silly, anxious dog and partly that’s what he was, but he was also my intuitive, empathetic adventure buddy. He wasn’t always brave but he helped me to be. It’ll take me some time to regain that bravery. With him always in the lead, together we explored countless trails. He helped me get out of my head when my mental health was down. The mere sound of his sigh behind my chair was a reminder that I was loved and not alone. He was my familiar. I’ve been waiting to post about him to have something more to say, something to live up to what I felt for him, but I should have known it’s too big to encompass. Like with all my other losses, I’ll always be searching for the words. Rest well, good boy. Thank you for everything you gave your dad and me. Your family misses you so much, angel.
