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Overheard at... The Portland Rock Gym
“They carry a big pipe.”I admit I am still trying to figure out exactly how a pipe would help climbers pee when they were up on the side of a mountain. The individuals were talking about the risks of...
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Overheard at... home
“It must be spring.”The birds are singing. The crocuses are blooming. The squirrels are friskily playing in my daughter’s fairy garden… Oh, Wait! That’s not playing. They’re practically setting up a...
View ArticleOverheard in... the neighborhood
“It’s like giving birth only people aren’t as nice about it.”I’ve made the comparison before between giving birth and writing a book, (most recently in my guest blog post for Susan Heim), but this was...
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Overhear at... RCRWs Donald Maass workshop
“What quirk does your protagonist have? If they don’t have one, give them one.”Quirk’s are a particular interest of mine. I think they make life interesting, movies hilarious, and novels deeper. So I...
View ArticleOverheard on... NPR
"They've elected a new Pope."For those of you non-Catholics (or Catholics for that matter) who are wondering what all of this Pope busines means keep in mind the role he plays on focusing resources and...
View ArticleOverheard at... the elementary school
“Someone stole my magnets.”I felt awfully sorry for the third grader who had created an amazing science project and then realized someone had wrecked it by stealing the key element. It is hard to...
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Overheard at... Starbucks
“We sat in bed and laughed at your videos last night.”Why does this not surprise me? I have been acclimating myself to the idea that this is my year of humility. Fitting, I think, since my book...
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Overheard at... home
The sound of a bird singing out the window, early this morning.So you will have to forgive me for this late Thursday post. When I say early, it was actually around 3:00 a.m.; which, at the time, made...
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Overheard at Diamond Peak Ski Area
“It’s like you're trekking.”With one of the chair lifts out of commission, and many of the runs closed, you would think our day of skiing would not have been much to talk about. Instead, though, the...
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Overheard at... Treetop Adventure Park - Lake Tahoe
“Can someone please help me?”In the distance a call rang out, someone had not attacked the zipline and were paying the price by hanging in the middle, waiting for a guide to come pull them to the...
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Overheard at... Starbucks
“Mommy, my tummy hurts.” Last night I dreamt I our house was flooded with chocolate. I couldn’t get away from it and the piles of dark sticky stuff kept growing. I woke up to find it was basically...
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Overheard at... Starbucks
“Have you seen the movie, The Way?”Two women near me were comparing movies and this one caught my attention because I had, indeed, seen it. (The rest all sounded like Woody Allen movie titles.) It was...
View ArticleOverheard at... Starbucks
"I don't know if you heard that she died."No, no, I hadn't heard. Yesterday I learned that the wife of one of my Barista friends died in February, leaving behind her husband and two children (one of...
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Overheard at... Home
“Wow, that’s a lot of Nike Stores.” Said while looking at a map of the Nike World HQ Campus.Today I had my first training session with Alex Molden, a previous college and NFL player who is helping me...
View ArticleOverheard at... the monthly RCRW meeting
“What makes your character cry?”Here’s how I know that anyone could write a story, I challenge you to find one mom who didn’t immediately imagine what it would have been like if it were her eight year...
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Overheard at... Starbucks
“Could you watch my stuff for me?”Uh… No!Let me be clear. It’s not that I think you are a bad person or that you have an evil intent. But I believe if we all followed the rules we would be able to...
View ArticleOverheard on... an airplane
“Shut up!”My daughter was walking down the narrow aisle of the plane, dragging her suitcase behind her in search of our seats, when a passenger said this into her cell phone. The funny part must have...
View ArticleOverheard at... Starbucks
“You are brainwashed into thinking whatever the government tells you is legitimate.”I grew up in a house that believed in many conspiracy theories. The JFK assassination, the first walk on the moon,...
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Overheard at... the playground
“Hi Natalie, this is your little sister Isabella.”(Image c/o comicvine.com)We sat at a picnic table, shivering in the spring wind, and watching children play on the playground, this 84 year old woman...
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Overheard at... Starbucks
"We're getting married this summer."I don't know why, but this overhear reminded me of two of the victims in the Boston Marathon Bombing. I suppose it is because I have been doing a lot of research...
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