Since who knows when I’ll have a chance to meet everybody in person, I have to use these online moments to get acquainted with my colleagues, to put faces to bylines and figure out what everybody covers. Already I’ve realized that I’m pretty low in the pecking order. All right, at the very bottom. But I’m still a reporter and that’s exactly where I want to be.
It’s here, the audio version of Chapter 1—Jessica: Starting Out. Meet JESSICA, starting her first day as a reporter during a pandemic. Meet DAN, a seasoned veteran of the newsroom. Already Jessica doesn’t trust him—and they haven’t even met? Then comes the bad news: Their editor has asked Dan to oversee her work as she…
“If we don’t have a marriage license, how can we get married?” It had never occurred to me that when the counties announced they were closing their offices during the lockdown, that would mean marriage license offices, too.
Coming on Wednesday! Since I know some people prefer an audio book, I’ve decided to create one myself. Now I warn you, I’m no Bahni Turpin (I love to hear her read a story). But I’ve done my amateur best to bring you an audio version of my book. They’ll post right here on Wednesdays.…
Chapter 1 March 16, 9:30 a.m. Jessica: ALL BY OURSELVES “I wish I had a cat.” Those are the wistful words from my bored six-year-old daughter still in her pajamas, looking up from schoolwork assignment we just read together. The way things are right now, I don’t want a cat or a bat, a dog,…
While we are all on lock-down, I’m writing a book and don’t know how it ends. Jessica starts her new job, a dream job writing for her hometown newspaper, the day the governor enacts stay-at-home orders. So she’ll meet her colleagues on Zoom and conduct her interviews via phone and email. Dan doesn’t even want…
Two weeks ago, I didn’t really want to do anything but worry if I was going to catch the coronavirus. Or if someone in my house or family would. Or if my son and his fiancee were going to figure out how to have a wedding during a pandemic. Lots of people have talked about…
I have heard it said (more than a few times) we’re going to have a baby boom when this is all over. With stay-at-home orders spreading from one coast to the other, I don’t doubt it. And what a wonderful thing. Love in the present and hope in the future! This pandemic is awful. Though…
Do you Nanowrimo? With a pandemic keeping many—most?—of us indoors, it seems a perfect time to plan for Camp Nanowrimo. A more casual approach to the rigors of National Novel Writing Month in November, the April camp brings us together to polish, rewrite, finish, or try something new without the stringent goal of 50,000 words…
I started my day with a rejection letter. It came from a New York agent who had asked me to write and resubmit a few months ago. She said she needed 20,000 more words or she couldn’t sell my book. Encouraged, I tore the thing apart, did a little new research and went deeper in…
Mary K. Tilghman, writer 