The real enemy of the creative

January 11, 2023.Reading time 4 minutes.

Sylvia Plath said, “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” In her journal, she ends a long paragraph about having the guts to write, to make a creative life, with: “You big baby.” I’ve said this to myself after long paragraphs full of the same admonishments. But, “Don’t be a big baby” doesn’t help me.

Obeying a Call (even if it means fishsticks)

January 13, 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep The Small boys lived next door to us in the “new subdivision,” one round block of bi-levels and tri-levels on the outskirts of a small farm town. In the summer, all of us children scattered, bike wheels and skinny legs carrying us all the way to the other side of the […]

This is us: the story of midlife writers and co-conspirators

December 8, 2017.Reading time 6 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep It was a year ago November that Michelle Van Loon and I met for the first time. I was attending the Deeply Rooted conference in Chicago with my daughter and two friends, and Michelle was a speaker. She delivered her message about restlessness (which just happens to be my middle name) […]