The Chill Is On Is it winter where you are? Cold, dark, inhospitable? If so, we feel you! Of course, there are places much colder and darker than Albuquerque, New Mexico, but this winter we’ve had our fair share of snow, record cold temperatures, and cloudy days (and Albuquerque typically claims 300 sunny days per year, but I’d say we’ve already experienced most of our dreary days already!). Many of … Read more
Dear Memoir, I met you for the first time in a writing workshop facilitated by Jill Badonsky. You were scribbles and snippets that filled my notebooks. Some of those bits were silly and some were too personal to share, but those bits were life rafts that kept me afloat when I was sinking: my sister had been diagnosed with breast cancer (for the second time) and my granddad had died. … Read more
The Life of a Writer Being a writer, at any stage of her career, is no easy task. You sit down and do the thing–write–and create something out of nothing. You put yourself out there and share your messy, early drafts with trusted friends and critique partners. You revise, revise, revise. You query, query, query. You work with an agent, an editor, and maybe, just maybe, you land a publishing … Read more
My second year of my MFA program my advisor, Greg Martin, went on sabbatical and Michelle Otero joined the department as a visiting writer to teach the creative nonfiction workshop. She was super nice but I’d come to New Mexico for a REAL graduate school experience, which in my mind meant tough critique, no kid gloves. Michelle, however, ran her workshop in a kinder, gentler way. She wore kid gloves … Read more
Sometimes you write a blog when you’re about to go on maternity leave, but you forget to schedule its publication. Although it’s a little late, here is my take on the books I read last year. Taking Stock of What We Read As we look back on 2018, one thing we here at Plume like to mull over the books that we read this past year (whether new or old). … Read more
Yes, Writers Must Read We all know this. However, sometimes I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to read x number of books or x type of books. What if we were to just read the books that come to us when we need them, when we have the time? I’ve decided rather than making a long arbitrary list (e.g. a war memoir, first book in a series, … Read more
Welcoming in Eros Energy by Maria DeBlassie I’ve experienced a swirl of synchronous happenings these past few weeks all of which were centered on the myth of Psyche and Eros. There was the Facebook post about walking through our private underworlds in order to find our way to Eros and, ultimately, the hard work it takes to cultivate happiness. Then there were the articles I stumbled across on the Divine Eros and freeing our Eros energy. … Read more
Our February featured writer is Maria DeBlassie, author of the newly-released book Everyday Enchantments. We are so excited to welcome Maria to the Plume family and to share her enchanting (okay, we had to!) work with you. Be sure to check out our Instagram post from January 5th to find out how you could win a signed copy of Maria’s book and some exciting upcoming editions of Plume! We’ll be … Read more
My best friend Karin told me that when she sleeps it’s like going to the movies. She dreams complete stories. And she doesn’t always have the lead role! That surprised me because I’m always the star of my own dreams. If I remember them. Of course she’s a fiction writer and I write nonfiction—I’m working on a memoir. And even when I do write fiction, the lead character is usually … Read more
Resolutions or Intentions? I don’t know about you, but the whole idea of New Year’s Resolutions is a bit confounding. In fact, I’m not really sure what “resolutions” are. They are not “goals” which are measurable so it seems they are never quite attainable. The idea of setting intentions seems to be all the rage, along with “mindfulness” which both seem to be ideas that we should think about what … Read more
I met Suzanne in graduate school–she was a year (and a generation) behind me and started out with an emphasis in fiction but soon expanded her studies. I remember one conversation we had. She was complaining about the “old dudes” in her fiction workshop. How they were dismissive of her (and the younger writers). And I said, “Suzanne, those old dudes are the same age as me!” and she said, … Read more
I hate Christmas. I think the fact that I’ve been working on this blog post for over two weeks is a pretty good indication that it’s hard to explain.  It’s not that I don’t appreciate the beauty of a Christmas tree, or a Christmas truck. And chestnuts roasting and mulled wine, hot apple cider, and the lights! Only a grumpy grinch wouldn’t like the lights. And here in New Mexico … Read more