What The Shadow Knows: What Part of Yourself Do You Reject?
In Jungian terms, the “shadow” refers to those aspects of ourselves we reject. Are there aspects of yourself you keep hidden, that only appear in your dreams?
Earth, Sky, Star, Moon: Bringing Nature Inside Yourself
Environments can increase or reduce our stress and anxiety. “Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.” —E. O. Wilson
Four Principles of Survival My Characters Taught Me
What can fictional characters teach you about survival? I learned four principles of survival from the characters in my first novel, but only after I had finished writing.
Treating Patients or Creating Characters? Making the Choice
Dale Kushner, author of The Conditions of Love, recalls the time when she decided she must choose between becoming a Jungian analyst and a writer of fiction.
Anne Frank and My Birth as a Writer
For a nine-year-old in New Jersey, the confessions of a 13-year-old German girl to her diary were life-changing.
Girls at Risk: The Enigma of Resilience and What I Learn from My Characters
Dale Kushner explores how the main characters in her two novels are put at risk by their parents but discover resilience within themselves.
How Do We Know We Have Come of Age?
I want to tell you right off that I had every intention of writing this blog about coming of age, what it might mean here and now in the States, and even dip into a look at classic and current coming-of-age novels, of which there are many, and which has, at times been a moniker for my own novel, The Conditions of Love.
Mother's Day 2015: Struggling with Being a Mother and a Writer
As Mother’s Day 2015 approaches, I feel called to write about a subject I’ve lived intimately, a subject I’ve explored in The Conditions of Love and is now shaping my new novel Digging To China—the conflict many women feel between their creative and domestic selves.
On Writing, Climbing, and Resilience
A number of years ago, I did something I thought I’d never do: I scaled a forty-foot inflatable climbing tower, jumped into a net, and was belayed down to earth. How did this happen? I was with my daughters, one of whom was on the Outward Bound team that had set up the towers on a cross-country bike tour to raise awareness for girls Outward Bound expeditions.
Men respond to The Conditions of Love
People sometimes ask me who I write for. Do I have an ideal reader in mind while I’m writing? The question always surprises me.
On Enchantment and My Writing
Enchantment. I hope the word sends a thrill up your spine! When was the last time your conversation turned to enchantment? Who talks about enchantment these days? That may be one of the reasons it interests me.
The Five Best Questions To Ask a Writer
Since May and the publication of the paperback edition of The Conditions of Love, I’ve been on the road visiting bookstores and talking to readers.
The Dark Side of the 50’s, Suffering, and a Writer’s Education: Marshal Zeringue’s The Page 69 Test
Marshal McLuhan, last century’s great communication theorist, declared that if you turn to page 69 in a book and like it, you’ll like the entire book. It’s a fascinating concept, one Marshal Zeringue has used for his blog called The Page 69 Test.