Authors I'd like to BE!

I found a new blog a week or two ago for an author I'm currently stalking/author crushing on--Elizabeth Berg.

You can read it here.

The thing about Elizabeth (yeah, we're good friends, we're on a first name basis now. Hahahaha !) is she is just so dadgummed REAL. I guess that's why her book on writing is called Escaping Into the Open: the Art of Writing True. I'm reading it now, and while sure, there are many things in the book I've read in other books on writing after all this time, there are lots of little jewels hidden in it as well. Some great writing prompts, too.

Berg's voice reminds me in many ways of Anne Lamott, but she doesn't really go for the shock effect like Lamott does at times. She's just seems like a normal, middle-of-the-road kind of gal who writes what's on her mind, and that gives me hope as a writer. I've got the "normal, middle-of-the-road" part down pat. It's the "writes what's on her mind" part that is so difficult!

You wouldn't think it would be that hard, would you? As my friend Gail commented in her blog today, it is so much easier to admire someone for the way they write and just try to emulate them instead of being and showing who we really are in our writing. Sigh. Practice, practice, practice.

Anyway, you might enjoy reading about what's going on in Elizabeth's life, and I recommend her books. The Year of Pleasures was just what the doctor ordered about a month ago when I needed a book that let me just relax and enjoy. On the other hand, Open House gave me a lot to think about last week. The week before that, Joy School struck me as not my "favorite," but just what I wanted my 13-year-old daughter to read behind me because of her honest portrayal of a 13-year-old girl in all her "thirteen-ness." Emilie came to breakfast the next morning with rings under her eyes from staying up all night to finish it. I cut my Elizabeth Berg teeth on Talk Before Sleep a few months ago. Not many books actually make me cry, but that one ... it went on the "made me cry" list with Barbara Samuel's No Place Like Home. And sometimes, it's good to cry because of a book and not real life.

I plan to add Berg to my blog links on the side, but I'm too lazy tonight. If you like her blog, too, remind me if I forget!