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Last week I disclosed my dilemma in combining two short novels, A Southern Girl and Just a Dance, into the single story they cried out to be. The solution was neither painless, nor quick, nor even mine. Dante famously warned at the gateway to his Inferno, “Abandon all hope, you who enter here,” and I had abandoned all hope of getting A Southern Girl published. But in 2012, I appeared with Pat Conroy at the Savannah Book Festival. Pat always draws a large crowd, and the crowd

A Southern Girl (ASG) began as a short novel, by word count almost a novella. It began with the infant’s abandonment as the U.S. family, the Carters, debated the wisdom of adoption. It ended with the resolution of the conflicts on both sides of the world (hey, it’s a novel, it has to resolve conflicts). But then that question set in again: what if? What if the infant thrives and something happens that devastates the family unit? That led to what would have been my third novel

Six weeks on the road is a stretch, and when forty-three events in four states are factored in, there is only one logical question that can be asked: are you insane? Maybe. I kicked off the Southern Girl book tour on May 8 near Columbia with Friends of the Irmo Library, the first of a number of library events on the schedule. The crowd was small but eager to learn about the book. The crowd was anything but small the following evening at a private party on Hilton Head Island.

Last week’s blog listed the major factors that weighed in our decision to spend a year in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. As part of my research into the country, I came across this quote, attributed to an anonymous source. Since the credibility of any anonymous source is suspect, I’m not sure why this one stuck with me as it did, but it proved to be the truest thing I read about Mexico in all my study in advance of actually going there: “If you arrive in Mexico without patien

When I left you last week I was on the cusp of literary stardom with my first novel, Bethesda’s Child. I had what I had been assured was a very good story, one of the top literary agents in New York had signed me up as a client, and the timing of the genetic science, which anticipated issues and tensions springing to world consciousness a few years later when Dolly the Sheep was created (invented?) seemed perfect. All the elements had fallen into place for a best seller with

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Last week I wrote about the attrition of the spirit I felt after eighteen years in the legal arena, butting heads with judges, opposing lawyers, and at times my own clients. But as human experience tells us, to identify a problem is not to solve it, although it is a crucial first step. I wanted something that I suspect we all want: fulfillment. But what? The answer for me began to reveal itself after a youth soccer match. My youngest son played on a team called the Williamsbu

My writing life began with a short story I wrote in 1990 called The Dare on the Bridge. The bridge, in case you’re curious, is the Coleman Bridge that crosses the York River between Yorktown and Gloucester, Virginia. It is a non-fiction account of a day spent with my youngest son and four of his teammates on a youth soccer team called the Williamsburg Wizards. I’ll have more to say about that story in a future blog, but today I want to focus on the time at which it was writte

As Easter approaches, I’m reminded of one of my mother’s most enduring gifts. Like most of her generation, she handed down to her grandchildren silver flatware, some furniture that would have impressed few on the Antiques Roadshow, and hug-infused unconditional love. Late in life, she took up ceramics, a soothing, stress-free hobby that produced Easter rabbits for each of my children. Each displays the grandchild’s name in her still-respectable print. Each contained a recepta

For a number of years, I've had the great pleasure of regularly lunching with Pat Conroy & Bernie Schein, two of my favorite writers and favorite humans. This week, my friend Scott Graber was kind enough to videotape part of the lunch so that I could share it with you. It was a wonderful afternoon, in which longtime friends gently poked fun at each other while sharing fantastic food and wine at one of our favorite restaurants, Griffin Market. Pat and Bernie are truly two of t