How does a busy, mini-van driving mom of four kids find time to write a novel? Recently, this question is a frequent topic of conversation. With the piles of dishes, dirty laundry, bills, and homework constantly demanding attention, mothers often put their goals and dreams on the back-burner while they kill the alligator closest to the…
January 2010. Seven months and a few days after the birth of my youngest daughter. I began to scrub at the remains of a popsicle that had melted on the countertop, trickled down the side of the cabinet, and pooled in a sticky lake on the floor. As I bent down to wipe it, I…
Several years ago, my husband and I stood at easels in my dad’s studio, ready for a painting lesson. Phil chose an Idaho sunset photograph to work from. I picked a shadowy river with a deep orange sky, taken just after the sun had gone down. I could only see two colors: black and orange.…
Imagine yourself in a mini-van full of noisy grade school children. The air conditioning blasts your face with icy air, but a bead of sweat trickles down the middle of your back and disappears in your clinging clothes. School. August. Arizona. It doesn’t make sense. You turn up the radio at the request of the…
My eighteen year old sister rarely calls me, but for some reason I was on her mind one night in late August, 2013. The conversation was simple. She wasn’t asking me. She was telling me. “You should write a novel. November is National Novel Writing month. We should both do it this year.” I couldn’t…
Adrienne Quintana 