Amy, your latest version is beautifully written. I was with you the entire way! The inclusion of learning to drive with your dad and connecting that to your worries about driving with Parkinson's is powerful. Your final paragraph about "essay--to try" is the perfect way to end it. Now I need to get busy and make my final revisions! I am so glad I met you, and the rest of our team. Be sure to let me know when you're visiting your son at Drake. Perhaps we can find a few minutes to grab lunch or coffee.
Thanks, Kathy! I’m so glad that I met you. The feedback that I got last week really helped me think differently about my writing. I can’t wait to see how your book unfolds. Let’s definitely stay in touch!
I’m always drawn to someone’s writing that articulates struggle combined with first-hand experience bumped up against encouragement for others with how to manage it. Witnessing that not only in your writing, but also in your ready compassion shown to the classmate who didn’t have access to a computer to write out her essay so that it could be shared, made it apparent that you are indeed a writer to keep watching! Bravo 👏
I could write my own parking ramp story about losing my car in one of dozens in Downtown Minneapolis when I took a Latina woman to meet her immigration lawyer a day before the two of them were scheduled to plead before an immigration judge in court. As I’d seen my husband do many times before leaving our parked vehicle in a parking garage, I put the slip identifying what time & place we entered on the dash, locked the vehicle & then ushered the Spanish-speaking Honduran immigrant to her lawyer’s office somewhere in the maze of buildings in Downtown Minneapolis connected by walkways. When the attorney suggested I leave their client meeting, I thought it would give me the chance to find the easiest way to my vehicle when they were finished only to realize that there are multiple parking ramps in Downtown Minneapolis & I couldn’t remember which one I used. Frantically I started my search going ramp to ramp clicking my panic button on my key fob hoping it would help me locate my vehicle. A parking attendant just coming on her shift at one 2-sided, 5-floor garage volunteered to drive me along each floor as I held the clicker out the window. Nothing connected. As I walked through a skyway connecting buildings thinking this woman from a country thousands of miles away trusts me to take her across the state to go to Immigration Court & I lose my vehicle. Just then I looked down at the street & saw the entry sign for “Hell’s Kitchen” & I remembered that I parked my vehicle in the ramp next to it on Red door on floor 5! It was my ticket out of my self-inflicted hell! Parking ramp panic 😱 & relief 😮💨 might not be at the same level as yours, but it is my parking ramp story that will stay with me forever!
Jeannie - Your parking ramp story is fantastic. Hearing about that is what sent me down the path of researching parking ramps. I can’t even imagine your panic!
So neat - I'm jealous! My college roommate is an alum of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, in addition to one of my "aspirational selves," a professor-turned-historical novelist, Abraham Verghese.
OK, now I’m jealous!!! I love Verghese’s work. If it ever fits in your schedule, you should come take an Iowa Summer Writing Festival class with me! (They have weekend and full week options.)
Verghese recorded the audiobook version of his new book, "Covenant of Water." It was incredible; I could really feel the compassion he has for his characters and was totally immersed in the story.
A Summer Writing Festival class would be so fun - just signed up for the mailing list!
Amy, your latest version is beautifully written. I was with you the entire way! The inclusion of learning to drive with your dad and connecting that to your worries about driving with Parkinson's is powerful. Your final paragraph about "essay--to try" is the perfect way to end it. Now I need to get busy and make my final revisions! I am so glad I met you, and the rest of our team. Be sure to let me know when you're visiting your son at Drake. Perhaps we can find a few minutes to grab lunch or coffee.
Thanks, Kathy! I’m so glad that I met you. The feedback that I got last week really helped me think differently about my writing. I can’t wait to see how your book unfolds. Let’s definitely stay in touch!
I’m always drawn to someone’s writing that articulates struggle combined with first-hand experience bumped up against encouragement for others with how to manage it. Witnessing that not only in your writing, but also in your ready compassion shown to the classmate who didn’t have access to a computer to write out her essay so that it could be shared, made it apparent that you are indeed a writer to keep watching! Bravo 👏
I could write my own parking ramp story about losing my car in one of dozens in Downtown Minneapolis when I took a Latina woman to meet her immigration lawyer a day before the two of them were scheduled to plead before an immigration judge in court. As I’d seen my husband do many times before leaving our parked vehicle in a parking garage, I put the slip identifying what time & place we entered on the dash, locked the vehicle & then ushered the Spanish-speaking Honduran immigrant to her lawyer’s office somewhere in the maze of buildings in Downtown Minneapolis connected by walkways. When the attorney suggested I leave their client meeting, I thought it would give me the chance to find the easiest way to my vehicle when they were finished only to realize that there are multiple parking ramps in Downtown Minneapolis & I couldn’t remember which one I used. Frantically I started my search going ramp to ramp clicking my panic button on my key fob hoping it would help me locate my vehicle. A parking attendant just coming on her shift at one 2-sided, 5-floor garage volunteered to drive me along each floor as I held the clicker out the window. Nothing connected. As I walked through a skyway connecting buildings thinking this woman from a country thousands of miles away trusts me to take her across the state to go to Immigration Court & I lose my vehicle. Just then I looked down at the street & saw the entry sign for “Hell’s Kitchen” & I remembered that I parked my vehicle in the ramp next to it on Red door on floor 5! It was my ticket out of my self-inflicted hell! Parking ramp panic 😱 & relief 😮💨 might not be at the same level as yours, but it is my parking ramp story that will stay with me forever!
Jeannie - Your parking ramp story is fantastic. Hearing about that is what sent me down the path of researching parking ramps. I can’t even imagine your panic!
So neat - I'm jealous! My college roommate is an alum of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, in addition to one of my "aspirational selves," a professor-turned-historical novelist, Abraham Verghese.
OK, now I’m jealous!!! I love Verghese’s work. If it ever fits in your schedule, you should come take an Iowa Summer Writing Festival class with me! (They have weekend and full week options.)
Verghese recorded the audiobook version of his new book, "Covenant of Water." It was incredible; I could really feel the compassion he has for his characters and was totally immersed in the story.
A Summer Writing Festival class would be so fun - just signed up for the mailing list!