Laura Benedict's Blog, page 33

Winter Light

I’ve been hyper-aware of light this winter. I don’t think I ever really noticed before how it changesevery second. My awareness beganlast month when I realized I’d temporarily forgotten that I have SAD, and have to artificially up my daylight quotient. (One of the reasons we moved away from Michigan after two years was the lake effect, which allowed us only two hours of sunshine between Halloween and Christmas one year. If you are similarly affected with the winter blues, I highly recommend a...

Food + Shame, a Recipe for Making Monsters

“Once more unto the breech, dear friends, once more.” –Shakespeare (HenryV)

“I think you might have body dysmorphia.” –Darling Daughter

“No one wants to hear the skinny girl complain about being fat.” –Darling Husband

It’s that time of year again. Back on October 29th or so, I heard a news byte that said to make note of your weight that day because it’s likely the least you’ll weigh for the rest of the year. It warnedthat holiday treats are to blame—and my treatfest definitely starts with...

Saturday the 7th

A perfect day of reading, writing, relaxing, and taking photos. Also, a couple loads of laundry for balance. (There may have been a nap involved, as well.)

I’m solidly into the final third of the novel, and eager to finish in the next 2-3 weeks. I need a lot more days like today.

Tomorrow we take down all the Christmas decorations. My daughter said, “I feel like after we take them down we should put up winter decorations, like Starbucks.” Oddly enough, I kind of agree. The house will seem ver...

The Raindrop Prelude

As pianists go, I’m by no means exceptional. In fact, I’m not really a pianist, but a person who enjoys playing the piano. As a kid, I stopped taking lessons at fourteen because it didn’t seem a cool thing to do, and I wasn’t interested in practicing. Part of the problem was that a piano is LOUD and I didn’t like people hearing me practice. Specifically I didn’t want them to hear me play badly—which happens when one is learning a song. To me, it’s akin to reading the first draft of a page...

Writers and Readers, A Love Story (Or, How I Really Feel About J.D. Salinger)

I always thought J.D. Salinger was kind of a jerk.

Salinger ostensibly wasn’t interested in the fame that came with writing one of the 20th century’s bestselling novels. Living as a recluse for most of his life, he shunned being viewed by or interacting with the general public. Though I gather he enjoyed the affections of women much younger than himself—some of whom came from famous families or had their own fame—and loved to know movie stars. (How do I know this? Wikipedia of course. Link b...

A Hail Mary Kind of Day

Today was a tough writing day in that it almost didn’t happen. I’ve gotten back into that same old loop of going to bed way, way too late. Usually I’m up writing or bloggingor messing around with Canva.com or paying bills. I look at the clock at 10:30, and think that surely I can get done whatever I want to get done before midnight so I can go to bed. I mean, I could drive to Cape Girardeau, MO and back in that amount of time. Or get 3/4 of the way to St. Louis. Or watch DUMBO and an episode...

Things to Come

In the next few weeks I’ll be making some changes to my website. There aren’t any hard and fast rules about how often a website should be changed and updated, but it’s often glaringly obvious when one needs help. I’ve had three websites in the past nine years, each with a major design change. This time around, it’s not so much the site and navigation that needs updating, but the author.

The author would be me.

If you look at the above header, it has a picture of me and the tagline: “Writing f...

The Fog

When I’m writing and get stuck, I will often get up andputter about the house or go online or get a snack (numbers 2 and 3 are never good choices). I’m trying to get in the habit of going outside and walking a bit. It was gray all day today, so I wasn’t excited about going out. Then I saw the fog gathering and knew I had to get out with my camera. Some of the photos are a little dark because the sunlight was disappearing fast. The colors were delicious.

January 2 Numbers

Jour...

Signs and Portents

This day, New Year’s Day, couldn’t have been more filled with signs and portents if I had scripted it.

The Dream:

Just before dawn, I dreamed that my Grandma Clara–who was born in 1916 and died when I was in highschool–was alive. In the dream my mother and I went to a kind of funeral visitation for her, but I was confused about being there, because I was an adult and she had been dead many years. We were close upon the viewing casket (which was open on the sides, and had a light canopy over i...

Brighten the Corner Where You Are

I will miss 2016. I will miss my son being 16/17, and my daughter not yet being 25. Every age my children have passed through has been my favorite. In 2016, my sixth novel was published. I worked on some special projects with remarkable writers. I saw New Orleans for the very first time. The best part is that I made several new friends and deepened friendships I have with others. I spent Christmas with my parents. And I celebrated being married for twenty-six years to mybest friend.

There’s a...