by Tamara Palmer | Sep 16, 2022 | Uncategorized
One of the most frequently asked questions of writers is “Where did you get the idea for your book?” I’m so excited that this time I can pinpoint the answer and tell you the story. It was four in the morning when inspiration hit. I was startled awake with the title:...
by Tamara Palmer | Jul 14, 2022 | Uncategorized
On a warm day in May with the car windows down and sunroof open, I was driving along, feeling guilty for snagging a last-minute opening to get my nails done—instead of helping with a PTO event. I hadn’t canceled with the school, I had called to ask if I could be late,...
by Tamara Palmer | Nov 11, 2021 | Uncategorized
In T minus 11 days I turn 50. Until two weeks ago I had relished the idea, excited to enter a new “club,” to be distinguished in a way that the 50s appear to offer to those of us in younger decades. Throughout my 49th year, I’ve told people that I was entering my...
by Tamara Palmer | Sep 1, 2021 | Uncategorized
Every so often people share with me that they don’t read fiction. As a fiction writer and an avid novel reader, I find these discussions immeasurably sad. Regardless of intention, my brain interprets such comments as little jabs. The implication being that somewhere...
by Tamara Palmer | Jun 3, 2021 | Uncategorized
What drives ideas? What creates … creativity? Do ideas exist and then enter our minds to be sculpted into a form, be that a manuscript or a canvas or any other creation? J.K. Rowling has said, “Sometimes the ideas just come to me. Other times I have to sweat and...
by Tamara Palmer | May 15, 2021 | Uncategorized
Perimenopausal hormone chaos has taken my beloved coffee from me. About two years ago I had to admit that the rushing heartbeat and strains to catch a full breath were no longer bodily sensations I could ignore and simply “deal with.” Caffeine was going to give me a...
by Tamara Palmer | Apr 13, 2021 | Uncategorized
For our 20th wedding anniversary, we were looking for a trip of a lifetime. We wanted to commemorate the achievement of making it through the years together, a trip that could serve as a true celebration of our relationship. My mind drifted to visions of Europe, spots...
by Tamara Palmer | Nov 20, 2020 | Uncategorized
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” — Mary Oliver This week, I lost my aunt and, in doing so, I lost my publisher. Judi was one of those rocks in my life that I had assumed was permanent – bedrock, tethered deeply into the earth....
by Tamara Palmer | Sep 1, 2020 | Uncategorized
Chicago, early March, so typically cold and gray. I was flat-out pissed off that I got called. Frustrated and oh so cranky about a ludicrous 50-minute drive to jury duty on a Tuesday morning. Why couldn’t I have been summoned to the courthouse in Skokie? 26th and...
by Tamara Palmer | Jun 13, 2020 | Uncategorized
The carpool line extends around the block, a row of brake lights as far as the eye can see. It’s January and an unpleasant thirty degrees. Thick grey clouds have blanketed the sky for far too many days. The environmentalist in me screams to turn off my idling RAV4,...
