From the category archives:

My Musings

Today I stood in an Ohio corn field owned by my third-great-grandfather, Joseph J. Parrett, nearly 200 years ago. It’s early June and the slender, soft green corn stalks extend only about a foot above the soil. The field lies in Jefferson Township in Fayette County, not far from Parrett Station Road, named for my [...]

{ 2 comments }

What Will You Do on Your Summer Vacation?

by Memoir Mentor on May 17, 2010

My spring classes ended last week, setting my students adrift until fall without weekly writing nudges from me. Whatever will they do with all that free time this summer? I feel a bit like a hand-wringing parent who has just sent her daughter off to college for the first time. Maybe a reminder letter from [...]

{ 6 comments }

Who’s Your Audience?

by Memoir Mentor on April 10, 2010

Trying to help my students envision the bigger picture when they’re writing their stories, I assigned them to explain in two sentences what their life story is all about. To help them along, I told them to think of the paragraph they would put on the back of a book jacket that would tempt people [...]

{ 1 comment }