Author Archives: Lynn McLean
Great First Lines
This summer, I immersed myself in a community of writers at a place called Star Island. I learned a lot during those seven days. I learned to figure out what’s at stake. To recognize words that say nothing. To write … Continue reading
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Not Now, I’m Busy!
Hi, how are you? It’s the cookie cutter, socially appropriate greeting. I say it every time I answer the phone…greet a friend….an acquaintance at work….a waitress at the local diner. And it has a cookie cutter, socially appropriate answer. Fine. … Continue reading
In Defense of Long Division
It is hard to say that anything is certain in life, but I’m quite sure a few things can be crossed off my shopping list for good. Film. Carbon paper. A watch you have to wind every day. Or ever. … Continue reading
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This Must Be Something Important – Memoir
In college, all education majors studied the teaching of reading Learning to read is a process, we were taught, so teaching reading was to be undertaken systematically. Phonics, consonant blends and diphthongs were to be introduced according to the assigned methodology … Continue reading
Green Beans – Memoir
Photo: Hoover’s Farm Market, Lititz, PA July 2011 When I was growing up in Michigan, our family home was situated on five acres. By mid-May every year, Mr. Rathka from up the road pulled around back with his big farm … Continue reading
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Friends and Neighbors
Always the cautious type when it comes to people outside the family, Mom treasures her privacy – especially where neighbors are concerned. She makes friends easily enough, but holds to the adage that “Good fences make good neighbors.” Neighbors might overhear a family argument … Continue reading
Guest Blog: Ava Paxton
When my daughter Sarah was in college, she received a compliment from a family member on a piece she had written. It was not a major project – in fact it could have been a simple note inside a … Continue reading
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Lavender Fields
Photo by L. Zoob, 2011 “Ah, to see and know joy in such natural simplicity!” – Iris Lee Underwood, Poet, Essayist, Lavender Farmer
No Thank You
I love giving gifts. I will never be one of those shoppers who plucks a handful of gift cards from a carousel at CVS on Christmas Eve. I have never joined the crowd of bargain hunters out before dawn … Continue reading
Doing Without
This is a piece I worked on in August 2011, at the Star Island Writers Workshop with writers and teachers Joyce Maynard and Robert Bausch. Joyce taught me the value of short, concice pieces – that sometimes, a rambling beginning squanders … Continue reading
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The Quality of the Day 