-
Connect with me
Author Archives: Karen
to mother
Dear Nancy: I’ve been on the road again, been teaching and driving, been talking and reading, and finally coming home and settling in to the quiet. This morning, during my sixty-thirty walk I thought about this letter to you … Continue reading
Posted in creativity, Magic, Motherhood, Self-worth, women
Tagged creative life, Karen McElmurray, praise; accolades; worth; words and value
2 Comments
some days of rain and words
Dear Nancy: Tuesday, late morning, my second morning home after ten days of workshops and readings and seminars and the good fellowship of writers in Buckhannon, West Virginia. Like always, I’m home from a residency so full I need to … Continue reading
Mystery and voices and the music we aim to make
Dear Karen, I accosted a priest at the farmer’s market over the weekend. A strange place to begin a response to your gorgeous letter, I know, and accosted might not be the right word, but it’s not far off either. … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Let evening come
Dear Sonja: I also have a garden that is a tangle, not of sweet peas, but of sunflowers and black eyed Susan’s and Echinacea spilling over a bank onto the patio. As I sat out there last evening sipping … Continue reading
Posted in comfort, creativity, Day by day
Tagged creative life, dread, love, physical world, praise; accolades; worth; words and value
Leave a comment
Making what matters…..
Dear Karen: The sweet peas are blooming in western New York and how much I’d like to write about them, their color and whether they grow near you. The perennials are technically invasive, but to me they’re perfect, filling the … Continue reading
Posted in creativity, Day by day
Leave a comment
Going There
Good Morning from the Ocean, Nancy: It’s Sunday morning, over the midway point here in my time by the sea. Last year, in this same house, I wrote you about days by the sea being like skins being shed, one … Continue reading
Night ride with stars and words
Hello, again, friend: This last Saturday afternoon, I rode with friends to Lancaster County to see a bit of Amish country—a rhubarb festival, some quilting shops, a wine-tasting. We passed many carriages and buggies, a family fishing at a pond, … Continue reading
Posted in creativity, Self-worth, spaciousness, The Writer's Life
Tagged creative life, life of a writer
Leave a comment
Leaving the work behind
Dear Nancy: Last end-of-week as I drove through Maryland and Virginia and a bit of West Virginia then finally on toward Johnson City, Tennessee, I kept hearing a line out of a Cormac McCarthy novel in my head. “And they … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Art and fear
Dear Nancy: We’ve been off the blogging grid for awhile now, and I have missed you, missed these letters, especially at this tail end of winter. It was subzero when I visited Ohio for a reading during the last part of February. … Continue reading
Posted in creativity, happiness, spaciousness, The Writer's Life
Tagged creative life, dread, productivity, renewal
4 Comments
A history of my writing desks
Good Morning, Nancy: Six degrees here this morning, and I’m deep into winter hibernation with book and dog and coffee and, here at my desk, am rereading your last letter. I love this part, especially: “I remember the slant of … Continue reading
