Every December the publisher of my book Writing Out Loud asks me to write a year-end holiday message to send out to people who subscribe to my newsletter. But this past holiday, I had writer’s block. Who wanted to think hard about 2020? What would I write about? Conference presentations that got cancelled? Visits to […]

here’s some happy news: the Chicago Public Library contacted me last month to see if I’d be willing to lead a three-part memoir-writing workshop on Zoom. Thanks in large part to writers in my ongoing memoir writing classes who encouraged – and continue to help – me feel comfortable using Zoom, I could, with confidence, […]

Trainers at the Seeing Eye school encourage us to talk to our dogs as they guide us. “Remind them you’re there,” they say. “It keeps them focused.” Since the pandemic hit, I’ve been taking one, and sometimes two, hour long walks with Luna every day. What happens when I run out of things to talk to […]

Did you know that today, October 15, is National White Cane Safety Day? Me, neither. Not until the supervisor at my job moderating the National Easterseals blog pointed it out to me. I was glad she did, because it got me reminiscing about a school visit I especially enjoyed at Eastview Elementary School in Algonquin, […]

In his guest post last week, Michael Graff said that when the idea of teaching memoir via Zoom first came up, “Beth was skeptical.” A very generous description there. Had I been editing his rough draft, it’d look like this : Beth was skepticalstubborn. Even before COVID, many people were suggesting I offer online courses […]