Finish Strong and Carry On

The end is where we start from. -T.S. Eliot I’ve been out and about reading my fellow Nano Poblano team’s last posts of the month, and for many of us the sentiment is the same: we made it through a month of daily writing to build the writing habit, stretch the writing muscles, in order […]

Getting To The Page

It’s the second to last day of Nano Poblano, the month-long post-a-day writing challenge, and I’m still here. In this penultimate post, I find myself reflecting on how the month has gone. I don’t feel that any of my posts this month have been particularly revolutionary. Most of them have been written in an hour […]

Board Game Inspiration

This is the third Friday in a row I’ve had the opportunity to play board games with a group, different groups each time, and I am loving it! To think, over the last couple of years around this time of year, getting together with groups of people indoors — especially different groups of people — […]

Atmospheric River

The wind is howling outside. I don’t mean metaphorically: the air is moving sideways and upside down and inside out, twisting its way so noisily through the cracks in this over-100-year-old house I wonder if I will get to see Oz. Freaky Friday indeed. Last year in November we had a series of “atmospheric rivers” […]

Motorcycle Rides and Magic Necklaces

I put on my magic necklace in hopes it will impart on me some power of writing, of creativity, of resilience. (It’s day two of a month of writing and I’m already floundering, how about you?) Some magic is in there still, in the delicate heart with dinosaur wings hanging from a thin sparkling thread. […]

New Rhythms

With the start of a new chapter, my hope is to establish some new rhythms. New rhythms of daily life. Rhythms that move me away from burnout and toward balance. Rhythms that facilitate making the most of my time and prioritize creating/writing, not only for my job, but also — first and foremost, actually — […]

Dead Reckoning

“So how’s the writing going?” An innocent question asked out of genuine care and interest pierces my heart. As any writer probably knows, any writer who hasn’t been writing, because… because. This simple question shines an unwelcome light into the darkest recesses of my cringing soul, through the secret back entrance that was foolishly left […]

The One Thing

You know that feeling when you get to the end of the day, and even though you’ve been busy all day, you feel like you’ve accomplished NOTHING? Nothing truly important, anyway. Recently I have been getting this message repeatedly, from multiple sources, about focusing on “The One Thing.” What is the one thing that is […]

Coming Home

We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. -T.S. Eliot Oh hello there, I’ve been off exploring and it’s been some time since we last spoke. Since I last spoke, here, in this place, my […]

New Beginnings and the Business of Mould Breaking

Dear Friends, Readers, Fellow Mould Breakers, As 2018 begins I’ve made some important decisions and taken some exciting new steps forward. In short, I’ve decided to start the new year as Janelle Visser, and I’ve started a new website to be home to my personal, travel, and professional writing. I hope you will check it […]