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Some Mad Hope (my author blog): MFA Reading Lists

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Books With Foreign Settings:. Bend in the River. Three Cups of Tea. The Things They Carried. Dream of a Blue Room. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. The Art of Racing in the Rain. Weaving Multiple Plots and Characters. Marisa de los Santos). One of the above with medical issues as key plot:. 1 Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter (Tom Franklin). 2 Olive Kitteridge (Elizabeth Strout). 3 A Separate Peace (John Knowles). 4 Interpreter of Maladies (Jhumpa Lahiri). 5 State of Wonder (Ann Patchett).

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Some Mad Hope (my author blog): A Memory

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Thursday, September 11, 2014. Photo by L. Jackson). In 1993, my husband worked for Dean Witter and spent time in the New York offices in the World Trade Center. He was there when the terrorists set off a bomb in the basement, sitting in the restaurant on the 107th floor, the building swaying with the impact. Maybe that is why, in 2001, it both shocked us, and at the same time seemed like an inevitability we'd somehow missed. Not much is said outside DC about the Pentagon these days. There were not as...

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Some Mad Hope (my author blog): March 2014

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Monday, March 31, 2014. What I Would Have Written if I Could Have. Last week I spent an unexpected 8 days sailing the Caribbean on a catamaran. With barely time enough to get flights and pack, my husband and I left our kids and the winter that would not end for a week in the sun with friends. It was crazy, spontaneous, glorious. and a world away. Thursday 3:30am: Momentarily I wonder, as my alarm goes off, if anywhere is worth going at this time of morning. No Internet. Don't send help. Daily routine est...

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Some Mad Hope (my author blog): December 2013

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Wednesday, December 18, 2013. Hobby Vs. Job: Should there be a distinction in fiction writing? I wrote this post some time ago, after graduating and floundering a bit with what new project to begin. I never finished it and found it when I was culling my posts this week. I have nothing locking me into adult literary fiction. I could write serial middle grade. I could write young adult. I could try a mystery series or focus on short stories for a while. About writing the book that is calling you. On the ot...

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Some Mad Hope (my author blog): February 2014

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Thursday, February 6, 2014. It worked. At least a little. They laughed. They oohed and ahh-ed and asked a lot of questions as they watched the real footage of the bobsleds hurtling down the tube of ice. We went on the internet and found out more about the original team, and about the team going this year. We looked up the bobsled schedule. They are intrigued. He asks. "You already had two gold medals." And the coach answers:. Lately I've had a lot of people asking me what I'm working on now or when I'm g...

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Some Mad Hope (my author blog): The Long Road

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Tuesday, September 16, 2014. We had to keep saying, nudging our kids out of their books and games. We had to constantly remind them, this isn't a destination vacation: the journey's the thing. It's something I am realizing is true of my novel, as well. I harbor a sense of shame that it's been in the works so long. Three of the last four years have been wrapped up in this book. I should be done. Those are the words that whisper in my ear constantly. Why so long. It's so easy to think that writing THE END.

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Some Mad Hope (my author blog): The Cost of Sacrifice

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Tuesday, October 7, 2014. The Cost of Sacrifice. This fame agenda and the other just wanted her to grow up a bit more like other kids. Would you be willing to give up all of that to be in her place, I asked. Would you give up your friends, your swim team, your band, your sleepovers with friends and Pinterest cooking parties and vacations? Would you give up Dad or me? But the fact is, there are only so many hours in a day, and there is a lot that fills those hours. I am forever doing dishes, doing laundry...

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Some Mad Hope (my author blog): Book Club Questions

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Many book clubs have asked for a book club edition of this book, and while a new edition isn't in the works right now, here is a list of questions you can use. 1Each member of the Babcock family faces their own personal challenges through the course of Ashley’s illness. What are they, and how do they overcome them? Who changes the most, and in what way? 2 Logan tells his mom the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. In what ways are Logan and Babs alike? How does this change Babs’ belief in God? 5 When t...

heidiwillis.blogspot.com

Some Mad Hope (my author blog): October 2014

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Tuesday, October 7, 2014. The Cost of Sacrifice. This fame agenda and the other just wanted her to grow up a bit more like other kids. Would you be willing to give up all of that to be in her place, I asked. Would you give up your friends, your swim team, your band, your sleepovers with friends and Pinterest cooking parties and vacations? Would you give up Dad or me? But the fact is, there are only so many hours in a day, and there is a lot that fills those hours. I am forever doing dishes, doing laundry...