FurtherMo turns five

Well, it’s happening folks. FurtherMo turned five this summer with very little pomp and circumstance. I feel like I’ve spent the last two years lost in my obsession to publish that i’ve ignored the roots and groundings of these journalistic posts. Maybe I should re-name this blog to FurtherMo: The Diaries.

deeper into the words

am tuning in to the rhythm of my own creative process. I am learning character from Hemingway and style from Didion, delving into wildness with cheryl strayed and sitting peacefully on the fences of British churchyards with Bill Bryson. I am asking myself the traveller’s questions of Pico Iyer and am suddenly indebted to Flannery O’Connor and Eudora Welty for their courage and bravery to get up every morning and write.

Thinking Big

I know that as a writer, I’m not supposed to obsess about publishing. I’m supposed to put my head down and keep writing, and never to get discouraged when the rejection letters come.

follow the breath

Folding tiny kid clothes? Meditation. Emptying the dishwasher for the fiftieth time this month, putting the groceries away or humming a song on a radio that you don’t even remember turning on? Meditation. Petting a purring cat and having a glorious, momentary lapse? Meditation. I bet Trungpa had big cats.

City of Ghosts

Ghosts. They really catches up with us up by times. Our ghosts, they haunt us, they  involve us, and they embrace us. Usually we go to them.

journey through middle earth

Where to begin? Let’s see, Beijing. Where Leila and I left off. When I told people I was headed to Xuchang, in Henan province where my husband Mitch was teaching, I was mostly met with puzzled shakes of the head  -not a first for me in China – and wandering upward glances. First they would repeat it, then I would repeat it.  Had I said it right? Had they heard me right? Welcome to China: so many opportunities to go wrong – before the one that may go just right.

 Where the f@&! is Xuchang?

querying: finding light in the dark ages

So i’ve ripped and i’ve torn it , shaped it and , formed it ~ and for the moment, I’ve  finished my memoir.

Whew!  Twenty months of writing, eight months of revising and a pile of edits and rewrites have finally gotten me to this most critical stage: Querying.

the heart’s voice: writing the book i need

Deep in my heart I’ve always been a writer. I was just so incredibly daunted by the publishing industry that for years I just didn’t dare to go there. I’ve thought about writing books about almost everything: the countries I have visited, the mysticism that I explored, and the exceptional transition that I underwent in […]

where the words will go

This has been one amazing week for me (and twelve other writers) as we’ve been writing and reading and listening and communing … all with the likes of word lovers like ourselve. What a wonderful chance to spend the week with Erika Ritter, a fabulous and witty writer who likes bikes, animals, and dirty politics. […]

Publish me!

That’s it! I’m blogging. For someone who has been thinking about this moment for a long time, it’s remarkably refreshing. But what now? What do I blog about ??? Parenting? Traveling? Teaching? Relationships? Intuition following, spiritual hazing, education fascination, or my writing career? How Leila hates soccer and won’t stay on the field, crushing my […]