Stone Point Creative

Reflections on 9/11.

Reflections on 9/11 It's September 11 again. Thirteen years after The Day That Everything
Changed.

Once more, I'm remembering where I was when I first heard the news,
reliving the nightmare that unfolded on the television screen.

How I stood in my boss's office with my colleagues, watching CNN on his
compact TV in mute horror as the first tower collapsed. All of us crying
out, in a single, anguished voice, when the second began to crumble.

Seeing smoke from the Pentagon drift past the Washington Monument, which
was visible from my cubicle window. Frantically trying to contact family
and friends in New York, and the recorded message telling me all lines were
busy. My mother, who finally got through on my office line, imploring me to
go home. The frenzied exodus from downtown D.C. as Metro shut down. I was
ferried out of the city by a co-worker I barely knew, who delivered me to
the Suitland Metro station so I could get my car and drive home. (Thanks,
Vanessa, wherever you are

Observations on the writing process: my latest blog post.

The Five Stages of Writing “If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second
greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The
Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now,
while they’re happy.” — Dorothy Parker

Long before I ever thought to ask someone to pay me for it, I was a writer.
Stories, essays, songs ... writing has always been integral to my being.
There's something about choreographing words in an elegant dance — to
convey a thought, evoke a place, elicit an emotion — that's gratifying and
soul-filling.

It's also a colossal pain in the tuchus.

I find that the act of writing unfolds in several stages — a variation on
the Five Stages of Grief. And because my passion for the written word is
exceeded only by my love of Broadway musicals, I've assigned a song title
to each stage. (Humor me.)

Check out my latest blog post! http://www.stonepointcreative.com/a-labyrinth-of-perplexities/its-a-girl

It's a Girl! And I'm Petrified. My first step-granddaughter was born last week. As I held her in my arms, one thought kept ricocheting around my brain:  You're barely a day old, kid, and you're already behind the eight ball. No matter what that tiny, squinchy-faced bundle of cute (let's call her Abigail) does or how much she accom…