I am so excited to announce that I have my first nonfiction book coming next month. Classic Diners of Maine is part-history, part-guidebook, part-cookbook, celebrating Maine’s most beloved classic diners. Here’s the synopsis: Across Maine, iconic diners come in different shapes and sizes. From the fluffy pancakes as big as…
Whether you always work at home or are doing so during the pandemic, setting limits is important to maintain a healthy work-life balance. On a busy, deadline-filled afternoon years ago, a friend reached out with a request: could I watch her girls while she went to an important appointment. I…
Hold it up to the light — the experience, I mean. Turn it around, mentally, and see it from all the angles. Take it in, process it, learn its nuances and curves. Then pour it all onto the blank page. That’s what creative nonfiction writers do in essays. They examine…
Have you ever found yourself in a writing rut? That can feel like the words just won’t come. Perhaps there’s no more to write? Here’s how to break out of it. Foggy. Uncertain. Indecisive. Ever feel like that? As a writer, these feelings can be detrimental to productivity and happiness…
Freelance writing is a rewarding career where you get to see your byline in many different publications. You also get to hand-pick your assignments and turn down those that don’t work for you. But being a freelance writer isn’t easy. Not by a longshot. The good times are a sea…
As 2019 dawned, my food blog was at its lowest point in a decade. Google updates hit me hard in 2018 — and my traffic wasn’t recovering. I had, however, managed to stop the sharp decline of traffic though. And I was working on improving SEO on old posts and…
Successful freelancing is part networking, part drive and part boundless effort — especially when it comes to pitching (or querying) for new assignments. Even when business is booming and assignments are coming to you, you need to keep pitching (or, at a minimum, generating and writing down ideas for pitches).…
Are you done having kids? That’s a question you aren’t supposed to ask others (but oops … how many times did I do that?!? Not proud of it, but it’s true). But it’s also a question I’ve asked myself again and again and again. Over the years, the answer varied…
Years ago, when I first ventured into freelance writing, I thought my experience as a newspaper reporter would mean that the assignments would just come to me. I put the word out that I was looking for freelance work, pitched a few ideas and … nothing. I struggled through the…
While the prospect of living somewhere fresh and new can be exhilarating, the process of moving isn’t fun. Cleaning out closets and drawers, packing boxes, having your bad habits (like, ahem, not throwing away junk mail in a timely manner) laid bare as you pack … There is an almost-universal…