This is a euphoric moment: I have finished my first draft! I know from past experience that it’s useless to try and keep myself contained and realistic. My imagination is running like wild, far into the future…past the submission process (there’s no guarantee my book will find a publisher at this point)…past all the work… [Read More]
Work In Progress #24: The First Draft of My New Emily Post Biography is Completed!
April 12, 2016 By
Work in Progress #23: Terrified! It’s Time to Make a Large Point in My Emily Post Biography
March 22, 2016 By
I have been writing for two hours, not one word of it on my actual manuscript. I have reached the place where I have to make a large point. Everything in the book has been leading to this moment. I probably have a paragraph…two at the very most…to say some very conclusive things and I… [Read More]
ABC Dream by Kim Krans Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
March 8, 2016 By
ABC Dream; by Kim Krans; Random House, 2016. 32 pages; $16.99 (hardcover); reading level: ages 2-5. The letters on the pages of this alphabet book are the main event: large and bold, some solid black and white, others plaid or quilted (you guessed it – P and Q!). It’s the surrounding illustrations, however, that are… [Read More]
Check Out the Books On My Reading List Through 2017 and See Why I Choose Them. My Reviews Will Follow!
March 1, 2016 By
Because I write nonfiction, I have to read a lot of books as part of my research. That means I have to be terribly picky about the books I read for pleasure. I’m not completely through my 2015-2016 stack (three more to go!) but I’ve already selected the nine titles that will be stacked on… [Read More]
Thwarted! Do You Know Any Great Places to Write Near Zionsville, Indiana? UPDATE: Darrin’s Coffee Company is Now Closed!
February 24, 2016 By
After just posting on how overjoyed I was to find a great new writing place – Darrin’s Coffee Company in Zionsville, Indiana – I arrived there last week with my computer and a stack of books to be met with a sign: CLOSED. Closed? How could my writing place be closed? Another Darrin’s customer arrived… [Read More]
Being Mortal; Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
February 16, 2016 By
Being Mortal; Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande. Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt, 2014. 282 pages; $26.00 (hardback). Reading level: adult. Being Mortal is based on some unwelcome truths: That we are mortal, that many of us will transition from independence to dependence as we age, and that we will all eventually die…. [Read More]
Who Done It? by Olivier Tallec Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
February 2, 2016 By
Who Done It? by Olivier Tallec; illustrated by the author; Chronicle Books, 2015. 32 pages; $15.99 (hardcover); reading level: ages 3-6. With a board-book style cover and thicker-than-usual pages that turn from bottom to top like a calendar, this picture book is sturdy, unique, and inspired. Each two-page spread sports two rows of animals and/or… [Read More]
Work in Progress #22 for My Emily Post Biography: Making Space for a Large Thought
January 4, 2016 By
When you’re writing a longer book, it moves forward in layers. On the surface, one word follows another and a sentence happens; one sentence follows another and a paragraph happens; one paragraph follows another and a chapter happens. Underneath the words and sentences and paragraphs, themes also have to be moving forward and these can… [Read More]
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
December 23, 2015 By
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson. Picador/Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 116 pages; $13.00 (paperback). Reading level: adult. In a scant 116 pages, Johnson chronicles the life and death of both Robert Grainier and the American northwest from the 1880s through the 1960s. Grainier builds bridges, fells trees, transports goods, loses his wife of four years to a fire, and by… [Read More]
Lila by Marilynne Robinson Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
December 14, 2015 By
Lila by Marilynne Robinson; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014. 261 pages; $26.00 (hardcover); reading level: adult. This third installment in a series of “companion” novels covering the same events from different viewpoints (see Gilead, 2004 and Home, 2009) fills us in on the mysterious Lila. Rescued as a small, motherless child by Doll, Lila was… [Read More]