Laura Rink

Work, Wonder, and Windows

May 2023

One of my motivations to write is connecting with others, and that connection can’t begin until the work goes out into the world. As I am currently writing a book, it’s a long slog before that engagement can begin. So I’ve decided to reboot, revive, and recommit to my blog.

This blog will be loosely organized in three categories: Work, Wonder, and Windows. What I am up to with my writing; wonderings inspired by books, podcasts, articles, essays, anything really; and what I’m seeing out my window on my borrowed piece of the planet between the Salish Sea and the Cascade Mountains.

Work: I’m expanding my MFA creative nonfiction thesis into a book-length work about my relationships with my Armenian grandmother and her two sisters, and the silence surrounding their life in Turkey and how they survived the Armenian Genocide. I’ve published two essays related to this work: “Geraniums” at Complete Sentence and “Tante Silvia’s Flinch Cards” at The Keepthings.

Side note: If you are considering pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing through a low-residency program, I’m happy to answer questions about such programs in general and my own everything-I-needed-it-to-be experience at the Rainier Writing Workshop.

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of reading, selecting, and editing essays for Red Wheelbarrow Writers’ fourth anthology, Spring and All, a collection of stories, essays, and poems focused on uplift and joy amid the harsh realities of the world. Published by Sidekick Press, the anthology is available now, and the in-person launch is June 11, 4pm at Village Books.

If you’re a writer, what are you currently working on? Writer or not, what other creative activities bring joy to your life?

Wonder: I’m reading Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari, given to me by a writer friend who always strives to lift me up and support me in any way she can. As a person with ADHD and, like everyone else, living in this fast-paced, information-inundated, and distraction-filled world, I seek ways to strengthen my ability to pay attention. One study noted “that if you are focusing on something and you get interrupted, on average it will take twenty-three minutes for you to get back to the same state of focus.” Notifications on smart phones and computers can be a huge source of interruptions, and while I tend to have notifications turned off, there’s always the interrupting habit of “checking” my phone, like the earth won’t keep spinning if I don’t. New goal: During my writing times, I’m going to put my phone in a different room and give myself two hours without it.

Side Note: I recently finished Side Notes from the Archivist by Anastacia-Renee, a book that uses the lens of history, of viewing oneself and being viewed by society to create a powerful memoir in poems. The writing is so expansive; anything I could say about this book feels reductive.

Reading a book worth recommending? Please drop the name in the comments below.

Windows: Looking out the window is one of my favorite things to do. My eyes get a break from close-up work, my body gets a chance to stretch, and my mood shifts by observing the outside world. What I’m looking at this month: All the shades of green, brilliant to dusky. Blossoms of lilac, sweet woodruff, wisteria, rhododendrons, lily of the valley, tulips, columbine.

Side note: Looking around inside also works: a photograph, a plant, a pet, a personal memento, anything that may give you a moment of uplift.

On either side of the window, what are you noticing this month?

My commitment to you, dear reader, is to blog at least monthly but no more than weekly, to keep the blogs short (under 1000 words) and, hopefully, bring some delight, reflection, and camaraderie to your day on this, as my Armenian grandmother Matilda Haigazn Englestad described it, tiny beautiful jewel of a planet.

GERANIUMS

April 24, 2021 / Laura Rink / 8 Comments

Today is Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. In honor of my ancestors, I’m grateful to have this short piece up at Complete Sentence.

Haigazn Family circa 1914. Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey.

LOOK WITH YOUR EYES

April 13, 2020 / Laura Rink / 8 Comments

Look with your eyes, not your hands

My mother said in gift shops, antique stores, the five and dime

Now, in my mask and gloves, I peer at

Avocados and apples, grapefruit and lemons

Using my eyes to discern

Firmness, ripeness, compatibility

Wondering if the underside of the apple holds a bruise,

If the grapefruit will be more rind than flesh

Touching is a commitment—

You are now mine, for better or for worse

REMEMBER YOUR TRAINING

September 19, 2019 / Laura Rink / 15 Comments

When, not if, you get tossed out of your boat in a rapid on a river, don’t panic. Hang onto the boat if you can, and with or without the boat, assume the floating lounge chair position: feet up, knees bent, and head back. Ride out the rapid and then, in calmer water, make your way over to the river’s edge.

I know this advice—my extended family has been rafting the Rogue River in inflatable kayaks for almost forty years. I email this advice as a safety reminder every two years in July right before the family gathers at Indian Mary Campground in Southern Oregon for seven days of game-playing, socializing, and floating down the river. I don’t know whether anyone reads my email but my be-prepared mentality compels me to send it.

Chuckanut Writers Conference

June 27, 2019 / Laura Rink / 5 Comments

From the opening address by Sonora Jah—The Writer in Uncertain Times—to the closing address by Omar El Akkad—Lies of Our Own Making: The Obligations of Literature in a Politically Fractured Age—my hometown writing conference contained immense ideas, blood-pumping inspiration, and a plethora of practical advice. The impressive faculty shared their stories, their hard-earned knowledge, and their passion for writing.

Village Books and Whatcom Community College have made the Chuckanut Writers Conference happen for nine years. For various reasons, I was unable to attend until this year. Logistically, this was an easy choice for me: the venue is eight miles away so I didn’t need to procure lodging—though Bellingham has ample choices for out-of-towners. I got to hang out with my local writing tribe and compare notes on sessions. Village Books set up a mini-store with the faculty’s books—an easy temptation I gave into both days and now have four new books on my nightstand.

SHOTPOUCH

June 20, 2019 / Laura Rink / 12 Comments

A wash of pink spreads across the lavender sky. The apple orchard grays into view. Soon Shotpouch Creek will surface, rippled in white. But first something new: bits of darkness darting through the air. It’s too early for the robins that will dot the meadow feeling out worms or the kinglets that will flitter in the willows along the creek. The winged darkness flies at the floor-to-ceiling windows and disappears soundlessly. Bats. A dozen visible and then poof—gone. One flies toward me and then melts away. Another scrabbles against the glass for half a second before slipping under the flashing over the sliding glass door. They pour through the dim morning light and secure themselves for sleep.

WRITING RETREAT

May 16, 2018 / Laura Rink / 0 Comments

Check out my guest blog at BREVITY’s Nonfiction Blog:

Real Life vs. the Failed Writing Retreat

I WRITE MEMOIR, PART I

September 3, 2017 / Laura Rink / 12 Comments

In the third grade, I read The Little House in the Big Woods series of books. You could write about your own life—what a revelation! I wanted to do that. But also, a disappointment—my life wasn’t as interesting as Laura Ingalls Wilder’s. Mine was a normal life. Two parents and two sisters, a house on a cul-de-sac, school a half-mile walk away.

OUT OF MY BUBBLE

May 1, 2017 / Laura Rink / 16 Comments

In my Red Wheelbarrow Writers guest blog, Resist: Ignorance, I discussed reading books to help deepen my understanding of and empathy for other people. Still working on that list, still glad I’m doing so. But reading a book is not the same as speaking with a person. Along came The Bellingham Herald’s “Outside the Bubble Dinner” sponsored by Whatcom Community Foundation’s Project Neighborly. The idea was to get matched up with a person outside your bubble and share a meal and some conversation. In order to apply for one of the five dinners, I first had to take a Bubble Test (You can too!) so organizers would know where my bubble fell on the spectrum. Then I filled out a short questionnaire.

RESIST: IGNORANCE

March 1, 2017 / Laura Rink / 2 Comments

Check out my guest blog:

http://www.redwheelbarrowwriters.com/blog/resist-ignorance/

HUMMINGBIRD WINTER

December 8, 2016 / Laura Rink / 4 Comments

Upon returning home, from a road trip, in the middle of November, I saw a hummingbird dart out of the large rhody in the backyard to the nearby feeder, a little sugar-water still in it, hover and drink, and then dart back into the rhody. A hummingbird in November—a novelty to me. This one had bright red over its head and neck, a male Anna’s hummingbird. I immediately boiled water and poured a cup over a quarter cup of sugar, stirred until the sugar dissolved and then let it cool.

SPEEDY

September 15, 2016 / Laura Rink / 8 Comments

The vet assures me our cat’s ill health is not my fault. Speedy, our thirteen-year-old tiger tabby, has lost over three pounds, has a urinary tract infection, bleeding gums, and failing kidneys. Cats are stoic, the vet continues, by the time you realize they are ill, they are at death’s door. Speedy is dying, and I’m pretty sure it is my fault.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TODAY?

July 17, 2016 / Laura Rink / 4 Comments

The worst part of my day, on the days I run errands, is in the morning when I’m standing in the grocery store watching the clerk ring up my purchases and she asks, “What are you going to do today?” A part of me finds that question an invasion of my privacy, while at the same time I realize she is making small talk. Another part of me is curious—what am I going to do today? My mind scrambles about for my own benefit as well as a polite answer.

Writing For Personal Insight

June 3, 2016 / Laura Rink / 0 Comments

Check out my first guest blog:

Writing for Personal Insight

THE WRITER AS ATHLETE

May 1, 2016 / Laura Rink / 2 Comments

I exercise every day. Every day some form of stretching and strengthening, and a hike or a walk must be done. Why such dedication? Because I’m in training, not for a marathon but for a sit-a-thon. And as we are all learning these days, sitting is not for wimps.

CELL PHONES AND THEIR ILK

February 21, 2016 / Laura Rink / 2 Comments

For over ten years, I had a Nokia cell phone, a standard one piece, no flip, no slide, no touchscreen—a basic cell phone. I used it to make calls, and to receive calls. This phone fulfilled its purpose. When my children entered high school, I was pleased that my basic phone could also send and receive texts, as this is the preferred mode of parental communication.

A CHRISTMAS PAST

December 21, 2015 / Laura Rink / 9 Comments

What sticks in a child’s mind and survives into adulthood? What joy? What fear? What anger?

Forty-five years ago, my mom’s extended family rented a large cabin in Big Bear for Christmas. There must have been at least twenty of us, pretty chaotic. It was the first Christmas in seventeen years that it didn’t snow there, a fact that has nothing to do with this story, but it is noteworthy, it is mentioned every time this story is told, it is part of the family folklore—the year it didn’t snow.

I WRITE! PART 1

November 27, 2015 / Laura Rink / 4 Comments

Every time I start to write a new piece—a story, a novel, a blog post—I get a sinking feeling in my gut, my chest constricts and a sigh slips through my lips. The glorious piece of writing floating in my mind sprawls on the page like a pig wallowing in the mud. A big smelly mess. What is worse than not writing? Writing poorly. If you don’t write, no one will know that you stink. Well, that your writing stinks. (It’s good to separate your self-worth from your work, though most writers will say that’s near impossible.)

I HAVE A BLOG!

November 5, 2015 / Laura Rink / 0 Comments

People blog for many reasons: to inform, amuse, advise, pontificate (what a great word—sounds like what it means), but in general, people blog to share their life experiences. And that is what I intend to do here—share my writer’s journey, and, on occasion, the journey of my daily life, because writers, like all people, must live life daily and sometimes it will feel good to rant about that.

I HAVE A WEBSITE!

October 17, 2015 / Laura Rink / 10 Comments

Authors are expected to have an online presence—when an editor or an agent types your name into a search engine, stuff has to come up. Not only do authors need a website, but they need a twitter account and a Facebook page. They need to be Linked-In and have a Pinterest. They must Blog and post photos on Instagram. And then there’s Google+, Tumblr and whatever else has sprouted up since I started writing this post. To sum it up in one word, an author is expected to have a platform.