Book Covers, Yoga Pants, and Lipstick
I spend many days dressed very casually. Life gets lived in that uniform -grocery shopping, banking, and any other obligation of adulthood. When I’m really lucky, it’s pajamas and slippers all day. Then, other than an occasional from-the-neck-up video call, my daughter’s the only one to be graced with that particular sight. Regularly, I also…
Rollercoasters and the Lake
I had two books come out this week. To say it’s been a wild ride should win some sort of award as understatement of the millennium. A couple of my early reviewers mentioned that it was like a roller coaster ride. I liked it, considering that was exactly the effect I was trying to…
Chasing Rainbows
It was a typical day in the Pacific Northwest: overcast with spots of rain throughout the day. On the long scenic drive from one of my honey’s favorite annual rituals (an oyster festival) we were enticed with several stunning rainbows. There are few things that fill me with more child-like glee than rainbows. The…
Feedback. And Vomiting.
Feedback can be a lot like vomiting. That image comes to me as my days fill with critique, both giving and receiving. I’m helping several people with their artistic works in progress as well as working with responses on my own project. I had to tell one person that it felt like she…
Rise. And Rise Again.
My name, Pascale, is related to Easter. It’s, admittedly, an odd choice for atheist parents to name their daughter, but I digress. Rebirth is my middle name. (Actually, Elizabeth is my middle name, but you know what I mean.) For whatever reason, renewal, reinvention, and renaissance have been on the marquis of the theater…
Your Check Engine Light Is On
Even the most rudimentary, single-celled organism has the ability to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Why, then, are we – as complex beings with consciousness and choice – taught that the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain are the root of all suffering? After decades of asking, and searching, I still…
The Price
I’ve been creating a series of novels with a recurring theme: the price of the life we desire. (You can get yourself a chapter right here.) They explore relationships, career choices, and feeling right in your own skin. It’s a theme that has woven through nearly every choice I’ve made in my adult life. [In…
The Gift Of A Week Gone Wrong
It’s been a very odd week. My daughter had surgery to rebuild a knee destroyed in a bad ski accident, our first foray into major medical issues. The two of us spent four days camped out in the living room, the upstairs bedrooms no longer accessible. I worked (inefficiently), she slept, and we…
Not Already Behind
It is still 2016 when I write these words, although the ball drop is quickly approaching. It has been a long, difficult year. I did not imagine, one year ago, what this year would hold, although in retrospect, all the elements were presenting themselves to me, waiting to be deciphered. It was a…
The Tyranny of MINE
What I teach has been around for a really long time. Like, thousands of years. Sure, I deliver it from my sassy, irreverent voice that loves big words, poetry and metaphors, but the reality is that very little (none?) of it is MINE. For a girl who gets whole body tingles from creating new…