I skipped this page the first time through. Don’t do that! It’s good!
You can find us at our laptops or:
annkroeker.com
charitysingletoncraig.com
I would love, love, love to cross Ann or Charity’s path at a Starbucks and write together, sit laptop to laptop, drink something warm. When I do a long writing haul at Starbucks, which I don’t do often because I need to drive at least 30 miles to reach one, I get a venti cup of tea. Then another. If I’m just there because I’m sleepy and have miles to go before I sleep, then I get coffee without anything sweet.
We believe you’ll experience a richer life because you’re writing, and you’ll produce richer writing because you’re living well. It’s hard to have one without the other.
Am I living well? It’s the question that haunts me from the book.
Sometimes I feel my life is as small as Emily Dickinson’s, except that instead of writing from my room, I’m writing from my back porch. And I am not writing poetry like Emily Dickinson. By no means!
I found out today that three friends of mine—one writer, two fitness instructors—are traveling to Cambodia together in March. They’ll be working with woman who have come out of the sex trade, teaching them employable skills, doing some mind-body-spirit stuff. It sounds amazing. The best way I can live well is to participate in their “fun-raisers.” Which do sound fun.
But I’m needed here. With my laptop and my spiral and my pencil and an entire cabinet of tea and hard work and 12 simple habits for a writing life that lasts.
Again and again, your time will come.
P.S. There are five appendixes with lots of practical tools at the end of the book. I didn’t read that section the first time through, either.
