When does it start to feel good?

Sage CohenUncategorized2 Comments

How are your last days of summer treating you? Back-to-school season always puts an extra skip in my step. As I’m readying my son for the fresh, unwritten pages of fourth grade, I’ve been contemplating one of my own primary school memories. Reproductive education started in 6th grade in the suburban New Jersey public schools where I grew up. Not-quite-ten-years-old, … Read More

The business education every writer needs

Sage CohenUncategorized2 Comments

The essential guide for your writing career is here! The Business of Being a Writer by Jane Friedman (@JaneFriedman), recently released by The University of Chicago Press, delivers comprehensive insight from my favorite thought leader about successfully navigating today’s publishing landscape. About a decade ago in her role as editor at Writer’s Digest Books, Jane acquired my first creative companion Writing the Life … Read More

Let’s jump off the NaNoWriMo bridge together!

Sage CohenUncategorized18 Comments

One of the ongoing debates in my household growing up went something like this: Me: “But Mom, all the other kids are doing it!” My mom: “If all the other kids were jumping off a bridge, would you jump too?” Of course, this is not a question meant to invite an answer–it is intended to interrupt an unreasonable request with … Read More

Writing the unbearable

Sage CohenUncategorized10 Comments

These are unbearable times for so many of us. With the natural world and human landscape full of turbulence and terror, many of us feel out of control and unsafe. I believe that in times of deep difficulty, we have an opportunity to both soften and strengthen, and that both are essential. I believe that feeling it all is, paradoxically, … Read More

Love the dog you pick

Sage CohenUncategorized2 Comments

I was lying on the floor next to my dog Hamachi, rubbing her belly and crooning into her ear about how beautiful she is, what a wonderful friend she is, how much I love her. As she smiled and yowled back at me through her crooked little front teeth and her black-lipped snarl, I marveled that I had lived with … Read More

He Taught Me How to Go Pro

Sage CohenUncategorized1 Comment

This week I read Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield and attended Sam Blackman’s celebration of life, two events that seem deeply intertwined as I settle more deeply into Sam’s loss. In a museum-sized swell of mourners that could not begin to fill the space Sam left in his wake, I was seated next to my eight-year-old son, Theo. Next to him was Jon, the … Read More