Sophfronia’s Blog
Kind Words
A blog about what I find amazing, smart, beautiful, or just plain fun.
Talking Frat Boys, Books, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
That's Bruce Barber between me and Mark Oppenheimer, and Brian Slattery is on the right. I recently had the pleasure of throwing in my two cents on cultural news of the week as a panelist for WNPR's Colin McEnroe show. Mark Oppenheimer, a new friend and writer of a regular [...]
Writing to Reach a Broader Audience
If you're on Twitter and a lover of books you've probably come across #LitChat, the popular discussion about books and their authors that takes place twice a week. Recently LitChat's founder, Carolyn Burns Bass, asked me to be a guest host on the chat discussing what I feel are some [...]
Can Creative Writing Be Taught to You?
I allowed the little black arrow to hover over the big blue SEND button a moment or two longer before I finally clicked on it. I’d read my critique of the essay multiple times to ensure my points were clear and the overall tone was convivial and encouraging. I’d met [...]
Creativity Playdate: City Island, New York City
This week: an unexpected creativity playdate. I drove a friend and her family to JFK International Airport and as we passed through the Bronx, I pointed out the signs to City Island, a tiny island neighborhood, 1.5 miles long, jutting out into the westernmost point of Long Island Sound. I said, [...]
A Grateful Writing Life
I am waiting. It’s a common activity for writers. You work on a piece of writing. You finish it. You send it somewhere. You send it to a reader for feedback, you send it to a literary journal for possible publication, or you send it to a literary agent for [...]
Toni Morrison and Me
I tend to talk about Toni Morrison with a cautious blitheness. I mention how we share the same hometown, Lorain, Ohio, but even that’s a scary thing to do. Why would I want to invite comparisons to a Nobel and Pulitzer prizewinning author? Such a thought would send most writers [...]
What’s Literary Citizenship?
What does it mean to be a literary citizen? The word "citizen" implies living somewhere and in this case we're talking about taking up residence in the literary world. I like Cathy Day's answer. She's the author of two books: Comeback Season: How I Learned to Play the Game of Love (Free [...]
Loving What You Write
I was walking around my yard in a bit of a daze. The day before I had finished the novel revision I’d been working on for months. Like the crazy woman I am, instead of resting I was trying to organize my thoughts for the next novel. But I felt [...]
