Caragh M. O'Brien's Blog

Remember forts? They turn any ordinary day into a secret lair. The constructing is fun enough, but then you add the sensation of crawling inside and seeing that space, that volume under the dipping blankets and you have your own magical realm. Writing a novel is a lot like building a fort and holing up […]

Some of us don’t particularly enjoy being noticed. We’d rather fit in. I just spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to find an outfit that would look acceptable for a business lunch in New York, and though I’m pleased with what I ordered, the process reminded me I don’t care to stand out for […]

I’m a writer, meaning I write every weekday and sometimes on weekends. I work on novels which tend to take a while to create. My latest first draft took 5 months to write, but before that, it took decades to figure out how to write a book. And will I ever publish my latest one? […]

We love a blank page, actually. All that possibility can go anywhere forward or back. I once drank spiders under the porch or they drank me. Sandbox sunshine glittered far from the school bullies. My aunt’s willow tree hide-away down by the stream was a house I could not see from a distance and did […]

Most days, time does what you expect. It goes by in a predictable way, and you can count on it to link up with a pattern of meals and work and sleeping. Then we hit holidays with the family and all the sudden you’re up to watch Spidey at dawn or assembling a Cozy Coupe […]

During a lovely visit with family this weekend, I had a chance to draw with my granddaughter. Usually she does her own artwork, but this time she dictated what I should draw for her, and then she added the pumpkin lines. Sweet, no? I love a gentle, bit-by-bit collaboration. Weekends make me feel lucky. Time […]

I just finished a milestone revision of my latest novel, and it feels amazing. To stretch my limbs and mark the moment, I took a walk up a sunny hill and honestly, I feel so good. Revising line-by-line is my absolute favorite part of the writing process, and when I get the words right, the […]

In mid-July, while visiting family in Minnesota, I had the pleasure of attending a baseball game with my sister’s family and hanging out in the section at the end of the third baseline. Baseball is the best. The Mud Hens were hitting virtually every pitch, and the score was 8 to 1 by the time […]

Writing is at the top of my to-do list. It’s listed there in large, blue type so I see it first thing whenever I open the file. It comes before completing a project for my granddaughters, ordering a flag, sending a condolence note, sending bookplates to a couple of readers, writing a thank you note, […]

Sometimes, when I take a break from a novel to write a short story, I end up with a piece that is unlike anything else I’ve ever known. Such is the case with “The Plot of Lies,” a story about writing stories, also known as metafiction. To my delight, the story was picked up by […]