The next two writers are both writing teachers that have been around a long time.

Natalie Goldberg wrote Writing Down the Bones, back in the 80’s and has since become a classic (a la Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird) on scribes’ shelves. I believe they are still using her liberating book in some college courses and writing circles because it underscores the ease and ability every human has to write or create whatever they need to express. Her style is welcoming and open, encouraging and educational. She specifically includes Zen thinking into her text and way of instruction. Her beliefs influence her style of writing that reads occasionally like a guided meditation. Her exercises are practical and insightful, taking the issue at hand, right at the core. She constructs activities for writers that fit the proverbial “outside the box” label. After this book, I am on to her latest, The True Secret of Writing, her unique version of connecting life to words after forty years of teaching aspiring poets, essayists and novelists. She currently lives in Taos, New Mexico and is exploring the world of color through her art  – via paint.

I just discovered Louise de Salvo while reading a review on Amazon about Goldberg’s books. I started with her newer, The Art of Slow Writing and am getting my toes wet because I just couldn’t wait with, Writing as a Way of Healing. I was impressed enough with the first title and her style and form to investigate further. I found out her breakout book was the second title, bought it and I carry it with me everywhere now. So, I am almost finished with the first and getting started on the second, although she wrote them in reverse. It doesn’t matter really with nonfiction anyway. She is a memoirist with several memoirs to her name and taught writing as a professor at Hunter College.

I am reading these authors simultaneously and I am finding them to be an amazing and inspiring group of friends and supporters.

If only laundering, sorting, folding, dishes, meals, errands, appointments, sleep and phone calls weren’t included in my day to day tasks, I would read and write whenever and where ever it would strike my fancy.

I am in the middle of devouring the works of four women presently.

I am reading Jeanette Walls’ The Silver Star. Her first book I read was the memoir, The Glass Castle and its raw yet detached honesty impacted the way I looked at retelling of difficult situations. Inspiring to say the least. Then, J and M from NoCal also bought me two more of her books. The depiction of her grandmother’s story, Half Broke Horses is about her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith, who was a real life cowgirl back in the early 1900’s, surviving the great depression and other devastating moments. Although based on her ancestor’s past, it has been fictionalized to make it more entertaining. The novel I am currently reading is about two young sisters back in the ’70’s. They are abandoned and search out long lost relatives across the country and the past, present and future come to light within the pages that follow.

The other writer I am enjoying is Victoria Moran. She is a nonfiction author of over a dozen books. I have her first books, Living a Charmed Life and Younger by the Day, on my bookshelf from at least a decade back. It always impressed me she wrote about a healthy diet and fitness amongst other topics and it seems she has evolved into one of the leading ladies of the Vegan Movement. She has volumes of information on whole foods, plant based eating and nutrition. She has battled with weight and writes about it. She began the Main Street Vegan Academy with her vegan raised daughter and holds the only accredited  Vegan Lifestyle Coaching  Certification available in the US today. After Main Street Vegan, explaining her take on becoming, being and remaining a vegan after her own thirty year mostly plant based diet,  I will be reading her Fit From Within, covering and sharing her dietary struggles and The Good Karma Diet, focusing on the spiritual aspects of being a compassionate vegan. She has excellent one hour podcasts I am listening to featuring major players in the field of animal rights, activism, environmental concerns, science/research and food/nutrition related themes.

Stay Tuned: Tomorrow, two more women authors will be highlighted.