Finally coming up for air!

2012 was an amazing year for me.  Not only did I tour my one-woman show, My Mother's Clothes Are Not My Mother, all over the state, but I also made appearances with my pal the renowned landscape painter Marguerite Robichaux in support of our book Glorious Slow Going: Maine Stories of Art, Adventure and Friendship. In addition, I gave numerous talks and workshops to audiences ranging from teens to seniors. All this was on the heels of a couple rough years, when things looked so dire I actually considered getting (gasp) a real job. (For more on this, see my January column at thebollard.com.) As the year ended, however, I decided it was time to get off the road and back to work. Currently, I am just finishing the final written script for My Mother's Clothes and preparing to return to the book version, where this all started. I am also planning on expanding my private public speaking coaching business. I've been working with clients in such fields as the arts, engineering, finance and public service, and I've been having such a great time (it's really fun working with people, rather than sitting alone in a room all day), I'm going to make room in my schedule for more. The good news in all this, is that my friends and family will be done with my hectoring them to come to my events for a while. The bad news is that I actually have to get to work.

So I guess that's it for now. Unless there's anything else you'd like to hear about. You sure? Really, I have plenty of time. OK, I get the message. Back to work it is.


Here I am, invoking my best Dorothy Parker...

First, a little background...

Back when I was a blushing college coed, seesawing between the English Department (take me seriously, I’m a poet) and the Theatre Department (look at me! look at me!), I was given an ultimatum by my then-writing mentor: It’s us or them. You can do one or the other – be a writer or be a performer – but you can’t do both. The gist was I was breaking the rules, and I wasn’t going to get away with it. On my part, the decision was easy. If you were going to make me choose, I choose them. Besides, the theater people were more fun.

Fast forward 30 years, and here I am today, proud to say that every one of those years has been spent integrating my love of both the written and spoken word. In addition to my long career as a print journalist and a celebrated author, I have taught public speaking at the university level for nearly 20 years. I have competed on a national stage as a slam poet, performed my work in venues spanning from New York to Montreal and have served as a keynote speaker at corporate and educational events – all the while supplementing my income as an award-winning copywriter. I have coached writers and other professionals to feel comfortable and confident in front of an audience. I have done the same with a group of resettlement refugees and immigrants (none of whom spoke English as a first language), as well as a classroom full of prepubescent boys. I’ve been a guest lecturer at Master of Fine Arts programs and have taught writing to library groups, seniors, kids and women inmates. In 2010, I coauthored and appeared in a two-woman show, Finding ME, and had unexpected overwhelming success with my  one-woman show, My Mother’s Clothes Are Not My Mother.

I guess you could say I’ve made a career of breaking rules. As I like to tell my students, sometimes the best way to get something done is to be told that you can’t.

So, thanks for stopping by. Bye for now.