Blog — learning

These are things I didn’t get to say, but they helped me along the way. My sixth grade teacher posted this quote on the board one day and I wrote it in my journal, and it’s stuck with me ever since. Hitch your wagon to a star. -- from the Ralph Waldo Emerson essay “American Civilization” It comes from an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson about proximity to celebrity and wealth, but back then I didn’t know that and I interpreted it as setting your expectations for yourself very high. In my mind, always literal, I imagined someone hitching their...

It's only summer, but already this year I have a lot to be thankful for. Back in February, I was very fortunate to win a spot with a mentor in the Writing With the Stars program organized by Tara Luebbe of Becky Tara Books site and author of Shark Nate-O and I Am Famous. The incredibly generous and fabulous mentor that decided to take me on was Brianne Farley  (pronounced /BREE-ehn/ rhymes with 'Ian'). She'd never met me before, but took a chance on me and was my mentor earlier this year. Brianne's got a wry sense of humor and was the perfect...