Mary Novaria

NYT best-selling author Laura Munson (This is Not the Story You Think it Is...) opens up her blog to alums of her Haven Writing Retreat in Whitefish, Montana. She asked us to submit pieces about what it took to get ourselves to the retreat, what our blocks were, and how the retreat has informed future decision making when it comes to creating possibilities for ourselves in the field of our dreams.  The theme is:  I Gave Myself the Gift of a Haven Retreat. So Now What? You can find other entries and learn more about Haven  here . Walking Lightly Ranch, home of Haven Writing Retreat I left my shoes on the porch and stepped into the lodge feeling like a fraud. When I arrived at Haven I’d lost confidence in my words and in myself. The past five years had been a morass of caregiving for an aging mother and teenage daughter, both incapacitated by maladies that my words, written or spoken, just couldn’t fix. Although there’d been scant time and even less ener...

Writing chose me. Not the other way around. Although, I did choose, in recent years, to be more intentional about what I write. These days, when I meet someone at a party and they ask, “What’s your blog about?” I have the luxury of saying, “Anything I want.” Usually it’s some snippet of life— a family matter or something that’s happened in my world that’s either bugging me or teaching me something about myself. I don’t often reflect on the “whys” and “hows” of writing, I just write. But when my friend and sister writer, Erris Langer Klapper , invited me to participate in a Blog Hop about the craft, I was intrigued; so, instead of hopping away as fast as possible, I jumped in with both hands on the keyboard and said, “Yes!” before I could change my mind. Erris invited me to answer the following four questions related to my writing life. I'd love to see your answers, too! Feel free to comment below.  1. What am I working on/writing? I’m finishing up my first book...