Betsy Horvath's Blog, page 17

Mavis

Hello, dear. I…hello?  Who are you? I’m Mavis, dear. No…I mean…it’s nice to meet you, but who ARE you?  And why are you talking to me? I’m a consultant, dear. I have a consultant who’s a voice in my head. Yes, dear. Wow.  I’m more screwed up than I thought I was.  I mean, can […]

Betsy Builds A Snowman…er…Blog Post

  Blogosphere? *silence* Blogosphere,  I know you’re there.  *touches door closed in her face* *crickets chirp* I had a good excuse for not blogging this time.  I did.  It was a very rough winter. *wind whistles through trees* I honestly didn’t have the time to blog. *echoes* blooog blooog blooog Blogosphere?  I really miss you. […]

Defining Success

Because I want to be honest here on the blog (and it’s not a secret anyway), I’ll tell you that I feel like I’ve been flailing around quite a bit for the last year or so, especially when it comes to my writing career.  I’ve been thinking about that fact a lot lately.  Also, since […]

Revisiting Assumptions About Time

As I contemplate the past couple of months (detailed in my previous blog post), I see that I need to revisit some of my assumptions about time.  Specifically my time. I am a single woman with a relatively demanding job and a lot of the responsibility for the care of an elderly, pretty-much-housebound, parent.  I […]

Challenges, Cats, and Coming Home

So, I haven’t been here for a while.  The last couple of months have been extremely challenging for me on many different levels.  I was sick for the entire month of January (literally).  I fell trying to shovel my elderly mother out of her house and was laid up with a badly sprained ankle and […]

An Ode To My New Roof

Oh, my ducklings, it’s has been such a hectic couple of weeks here at the Palatial Horvath Estate! Many things hit all at once, but a goodly portion of my time has been consumed by the choosing of a contractor for, figuring out how to pay for, and surviving the installation of, my new roof. […]

Always Something In The Box

There’s an exercise that Patricia Ryan Madson describes in her wonderful book, Improv Wisdom. (Ms. Madson taught improvisational theater at Stanford to standing-room only classes for twenty years.) Here’s the exercise: Imagine a box with a lid. Hold the box in your hand. Now open it. What’s inside? It might be a frog, a silk […]

Byron For Tuesday

The problem with having a snazzy holiday like Labor Day on a Monday is that all week long I forget what day it is.  So I completely forgot today was Tuesday and didn’t prepare a blog post.   Oh the horrors!  But never fear – Lord Byron is leaping to my rescue.  He’s like that. […]

Hands In The Dirt

Gentle readers, I promise you that I tried to plod through the drama of the past two weeks.  I did.  I DID!  But then…I got swept up in the whirlwind and found myself trapped under my house and my ruby slippers were stolen by this chick carrying a dog in a picnic basket… Okay.  Maybe […]

Imagination

Baby, I might not have a lot, but I’ve got me one good imagination. For the most part, this stands me in good stead.  Imagination lets me inhabit the heads of different people in different places when I write, but there’s more to it than that.  Imagination is what lets you see beyond what’s there […]