Where the River Runs Through Trees

“Do you guys specifically seek out places to live that are near bodies of water,” my friend Melissa asked me as we watched the brook tumbling past the hiking trail we followed in the pouring rain. The trailhead was located across the street from my condo complex. “You always seem to find homes that are … Continue reading Where the River Runs Through Trees →

Rereading Childhood Classics: Are You There God? It’s Me, Renee

As the first stop on my reunion tour of Judy Blume’s classic children/YA novels, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret was a really sweet–albeit somewhat outdated–dash down memory lane. It tells the tale of Margaret, a 12-year-old city girl who must adjust to the suburbs of New Jersey and make new friends, while on … Continue reading Rereading Childhood Classics: Are You There God? It’s Me, Renee →

How the Imaginary Lives of Childhood Helped Me Reinvent My Adult Reality

When I was a child, I lived and breathed fiction, inventing detailed characters and complex worlds everywhere I turned. In my fiction, I was a ballerina, a mini Indiana Jones or a resistance fighter. I was an only child growing up with a single father, an orphan raising my three siblings, or I was the … Continue reading How the Imaginary Lives of Childhood Helped Me Reinvent My Adult Reality →

Fridays’ Brief Book Reviews: Falling Head Over Heels For Fangirl

What more can you ask from a novel than lovable characters who live and breathe beyond the page? A young writer finding her voice, telling a story (fanfic) within a story, an innocent college freshman stumbling and fumbling into first love with a totally crush-worthy guy, and a twin carving out her own, independent identity … Continue reading Fridays’ Brief Book Reviews: Falling Head Over Heels For Fangirl →

Letting Go of Radical Resolutions Leaves Me Free to Fly

(Adapted from my New Year's post on The Mind-Body Shift) A prevailing theme that threads through my work and my writing is the concept of change and one's ability to transform him or herself at any time or point in one's life. It's not surprising, really, when you consider that my name, Renée, literally means 'reborn' in … Continue reading Letting Go of Radical Resolutions Leaves Me Free to Fly →

A Letter From My 10-Year-Old Self

As I wrote about a few weeks ago, my childhood best friend gifted me a masterclass with Judy Blume for my 40th birthday. As part of our first assignment, we were asked to write a letter as our childhood self. I've written letters to my childhood self from my present-day self, and vice versa, each … Continue reading A Letter From My 10-Year-Old Self →

True Tales of a Forty-Year-Old Writer

A week ago yesterday, my best friend gave me an early birthday surprise as a burst of inspiration to help me close out National Novel Writing Month. I was happily stunned by the email that informed me I was gifted a masterclass with bestselling children’s author Judy Blume. What could be cooler than taking a … Continue reading True Tales of a Forty-Year-Old Writer →

The Incessant Whispers of Insomnia

When you can’t tune out the Muse But your weary eyes refuse to skim another page, When muting the channel of inspiration is futile, Though your limbs ache and shake with The promise of imminent rain, You try to drown out the voices That defy the silence By meditating on diving deeper Into the present … Continue reading The Incessant Whispers of Insomnia →

Confronting the Past to Come Back to Creative Center

It was time to confront my past in order to come back to my creative center. Thus, I returned to my old novel about twins and remembered why I fell in love with them in the first place. Inspired by my original work, my rewrites and the newer material I had written in spurts over the years, I began writing as if I were discovering the story for the first time.

Back Behind the Writer’s Desk

I’m currently in the midst of rewriting and finally completing a young adult novel for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writer’s Month) that I first started 10 years ago. Yikes–I know, I can’t believe it’s been that long either! As a story first begun in an informal YA (Young Adult) fiction writing class, further developed in a … Continue reading Back Behind the Writer’s Desk →