Thinking about getting started writing “the tough stuff?”

A tumult of holidays, family-time, and the wearing of coats and better clothing are coming up in the Judeo-Christian world. I’m not a turkey eater or a Christmas-tree decorator. My menorah was  made almost forty years ago out of copper plumbing pipes by my arty, handy, born-in-a-Siberian prison grandfather (and I really love this artifact of our unusual family in eight stems and a shamash. ) Holidays can be hard if you’re not grieving, and sometimes very hard when you are. Which means, for me, that I write. I start over with new things to write about every year.

And the new online magazine Modern Loss asked me to come up with a few tips for getting started writing that tough stuff. My holiday gift to you, oh fellow writers.