The Writing Life Too

Skies are changing every hour and I'm sure another deluge is about to descend. Last night I had a few hours to kill between my critique group and meeting a friend, so I stopped at a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. I was eating alone so passed the time writing in my notebook and creating a word web for the new book I'm working on.

A few tables away a married couple was eating and the woman yammered away, as if afraid of the silences in her marriage, her husband's occasional replies a low murmur. And there was an old woman sitting alone waiting for her friend. She had tousled, wild, white hair with a pink scalp showing through and wore sturdy shoes and pants, and sat with her feet planted wide.And I realized that old women in restaurants fascinate and scare me. I always want to know if they're widows or have spent a lifetime alone. They look brave and vulnerable and solitary. I notice they almost never bring books, but just sit and savor their meals, looking around, perhaps eavesdropping like I do. Maybe I'm afraid this solitary life is my future too. But I was curious when her friend arrived and they chattered about their layers of clothing (they both belonged to the same book group) and then the friend, a younger woman by a decade or two, began describing her upcoming trip to the Chelsea Flower show and other travels.

The new issue of The Writer magazine arrived yesterday and an archive article by Donald M. Murray is called 10 habits of a SUCCESSFUL WRITER. And one of his habits is called The habit of completion--something I've been writing about in my new book. He writes: A piece of writing is not finished until it is submitted for publication as many times as necessary for it to appear in print.


I also wanted to let you know about an interview with John Irving at bigthink Advice to Aspiring Novelists: Don’t Shoot Yourself
Oh, and besides eavesdropping, I had a breakthrough while noodling in my notebook.