If you think about it, writing is sort of strange. It’s mostly done alone and yet the goal, for many of us, is connection. It’s that connection, the sense that something that came from somewhere inside us mapped to something inside someone else, that keeps us going. And makes all those writes and rewrites and can’t-writes just a bit more worth it. We’d love to know what story comment or response touched you. What note has stayed with you? Made you want to keep going? Made you laugh or helped forge a new connection?

To be a teacher is to sometimes find yourself on an emotional roller coaster you can’t quite remember queuing up for. One moment, you’re at the top, heartened by the excitement, the wide views, the suddenly expanded sense of the world. The next, you’re hurtling downward, fending off mutiny for…

“What’s that?” my daughter asks me, pointing to an illustration in her book. “A vampire,” I say. “And what can vampires do to you?” I pause for a moment, calculating the right level of information to share given that she’s four and we’re ten minutes out from bedtime. “They can…

2020 truth

I couldn’t think my way out of this disease, though I certainly tried — When I was six years old my grandmother took my cousin and me to Disneyland. I had been there before, but this time was different. This was a big kid trip. My cousin, seven years older than me, was not interested in “It’s a Small World” or “Dumbo” or “Peter…