 Red Room Writer Profile
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Jacquelyn Mitchard's Blog
September 2, 2009
- SEVENTEEN THINGS MY KIDS SAID ABOUT SCHOOL1. We had inside recess today because of the windshield factor. 2. If it was bad to squeeze her head, it’s too late because I already did it. 3. We prayed before snack. We prayed the food would be good. 4. I want to make friends but the teacher interrupts me when I’m talking. 5. I did fall asleep in class. ...
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August 31, 2009
- The story of Jaycee Lee Dugard – abducted at age 11 from her school bus stop and reunited with her family 18 years later – is hailed as a miracle, a reason to hope for those few but anguished families who, each year, lose children in so-called “stereotypical kidnappings.” A “stereotypical kidnapping” is one in which a stranger steals a child, takes the child away at least overnight, ...
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August 25, 2009
- I'm not that smart.It bothers me. Being smart enough to know you're not that smart is probably the unkindest cut. It's like being able to quote from the passage that uses the words "the unkindest cut" but not being smart enough to make it up.My big ambition as a writer is to writer a ghost story. A ghost story is a very, very delicate thing.Susan Hill's novel, The Woman in Black, ...
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August 24, 2009
- In a 2008 issue called 'Gone Too Soon,' PEOPLE magazine's editor admitted that when Elvis died in 1977, PEOPLE, then a new magazine, feared that featuring the passing of the acknowledged scion of modern rock and roll would be "too morbid." In a magazinedevoted to "the headlong energy of celebrity and popular culture" readers, the editors feared, would recoil. Instead, the ...
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August 16, 2009
- Many people consider their children heroes because they endure devastating and sometimes life-threatening health circumstances with grace and courage.Many parents see their children as heroes because they overcome bullying, criticism, social cruelty, addiction, bulimia ... and triumph.Some parents consider their children heroes because ... they die or endure harm for that which they believe. I ...
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June 26, 2009
- Michael Jackson was hardly cold when a perky anchor-ette from Entertainment Weekly popped up on CNN outside UCLA Medical Center with a scoop -- a photo of the dying singer inside the ambulance as paramedics worked to resucitate him (although one was evidently hoping his cell-phone battery would last). "Wow," said Larry King, in the same tone of voice Walter Cronkite used when we, as ...
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June 3, 2009
- How many times has it happened to you?You think of an idea for a story or a novel and it's a winner; it can't lose; you feel as though you're just taking time for a stroll aorund the park before you turn in your Power Ball winner.And it's not three days before you learn:Somebody else thought of it. Not someone long ago -- you're not channeling Charlotte Bronte. A friend thought of it and is ...
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May 28, 2009
- Fijians don't have a word for stress.I just watched five strong men bury a gigantic fish and packages of breadfruit bound with coconut bark in a pit of hot stones, then cover it to cook under huge leaves of the elephant ear tree. When they finished, they all cried, "Bula!" which is the Fijian word for hello and about everything else joyous. This "lavoro," or feast, is given ...
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May 26, 2009
- I have plagiarized. Once.And it was inadvertent.That can happen. At the time, I thought I had changed my own prose enough so that it didn't read like the sources it came from but I hadn't and also, I had no original sources -- only the ones I offered in my bibliography. It was many years ago. I was desperate for money and very young (this is not a defense, but a description). Assigned by a ...
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February 19, 2009
- I'm in Fiji this morning for work. It's beautiful, balmy, welcoming and about as far from the two feet of snow we left behind as any place we could find on this green earth. But the swimming and the sunshine and the abundance of the Fijian people and their lush landscape isn't the best part of this visit. It's this: Every single person we meet-from the village elder to the Australian footballers ...
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October 8, 2008
- 8 p.m. La Guardia --- The people left here tonight either have somewhere they have to go that's life and death or have lost all hope. All the bathroom floors are wet; the coffee machines are empty and I'm sitting next to a woman who either is Amy Weinstein or channeling her. v. bad.8:30 p.m. -- Someone turns on the second debate between Senators McCain and Obama. Much comment on Obama's purple ...
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October 7, 2008
- Monday morning: Woke up at 1 a.m. to the sound of my husband saying, "Wake up. Wake up. The dog is puking." I am the designated dog-puke tsar. I asked him to deal with it and went back to sleep. v. good.Monday afternoon: Paid for my luggage for the first time yesterday. $40. Lady next to me hadn't flown since her son's wedding, seven years ago. Nearly burst into tears when she had to ...
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October 6, 2008
- Unlike Peggy Noonan, who wrote poignantly a few days ago about Gate 14 being a small town of Americans who all looked shamed and wouldn't meet each other's eyes and didn't quite understand why their city on a hill. In other words, she mourned the glory days of the Reagan administration -- when both Ronald Reagan and Peggy had good hair -- didn't exist anymore. Never mind that it never did. ...
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October 6, 2008
- Unlike Peggy Noonan, who wrote poignantly a few days ago about Gate 14 being a small town of Americans who all looked shamed and wouldn't meet each other's eyes and didn't quite understand why their city on a hill. In other words, she mourned the glory days of the Reagan administration -- when both Ronald Reagan and Peggy had good hair -- didn't exist anymore. Never mind that it never did. ...
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October 5, 2008
- If Sara Palin were President of the United States, I would be as smart as the President of the United States.If Sara Palin were President, I could understand everything she says, because she doesn't use adult vocabulary.If Sara Palin were President, then I could be President, too -- right now.If Sara Palin were President, all the parodies on YouTube would not be funny. In fact, they're not very ...
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