Rishoff Writes

So I guess I was wrong about Senator Al Franken. I guess according to several accounts he used his position as an entertainer and then as a politician (aren’t they the same thing?) to touch women inappropriately. He has denied the allegations for the most part but did apologize for placing his hand on one woman’s behind while taking a photo with her. (So, why exactly did she let him leave it…

I’m about to make myself very unpopular—not that I was popular to begin with, so I guess I shouldn’t care, but still, I could just keep my opinion to myself, but there is no escaping the conversation. Sexual harassment is the topic of the day, and it is impossible to turn on a television, pick up a newspaper, magazine, or smartphone without news of someone being sexually harassed, molested,…

DEBATE—a formal contest in which the affirmative and negative sides of a proposition are advocated by opposing speakers

When I was in high school I competed on the debate team. We would show up for a debate and be given a controversial topic and told the side for which we were debating. It was an exercise in critical thinking and it was interesting when one of us would have to debate for something that went against our own personal beliefs. I wish people would more often be forced to debate the side that opposes…

New- adjective- of recent origin, production, purchase etc.

  I lost twenty-five thousand words, more than half of the words I had written for my new novel. I never did discover where they went, how they disappeared. And don’t suggest for one second that I somehow deleted them, because I didn’t. Honestly, I didn’t. I always, and yes I know you’re never supposed to say “always,” but I always wait for the message that tells me a document already exists and…

WORD- noun- a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation.

I lost twenty-five thousand words. They disappeared and are nowhere to be found. It is a sad thing to lose that many words, to have them vanish into thin air like a cheap magician’s trick. I don’t know where they went. I don’t think anyone took them, no one stole them from me, but they are gone, and I miss them. They represent hours spent at the keyboard- hours of work – gone as though they never…

JOY- noun- the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good.

Monday night I went to see The Dixie Chicks in concert at The Hollywood Bowl- it couldn’t have been a more perfect night. My kids were with me, a rare treat to have them both together at something more than just dinner. The venue is a favorite, the weather was perfect, the Chicks were giving their last concert of the tour and they didn’t disappoint. It was a sold out event, every one of the more…

VILE- adjective- wretchedly bad, highly offensive, repulsive

No one can stop talking about Donald Trump. He is at the tip of everyone’s tongue. I guess it’s no surprise, he has said and done some things that are worthy of discussion. He is anything but subdued or bashful.  There are people who really like the guy as a candidate for President…I mean, I understand how someone might see him as entertaining on a reality show where he can showcase his enormous…

RESPONSIBILITY- noun- the state or fact of being responsible, answerable, or accountable

I just adopted a dog from my local animal shelter. He’s ten, almost eleven, so not a young dog, an older dog, a dog that lived with a family for all those years only to be taken to the pound because the family dynamics changed. I could go into details how those dynamics changed, but it doesn’t matter, the bottom line is, it became inconvenient to have the dog- he wasn’t causing anyone any harm,…

GREAT- adjective- wonderful, first rate, very good

So Donald Trump wants to make America great again? I guess that implies America isn’t so great now? I don’t know, I think America’s pretty great, but I’m not one of those cheerleader types, jumping up and down and cheering on America, cheering how it’s the greatest country in the world and everyone better look at us like we are. I’m not a crazed flag-waving America fan who disdains the rest of…

LOSS- noun- the state of being deprived of or being without something that one has had

Loss comes in many ways, we lose the games we play, the bets we make, the chances we take, and sometimes what someone sees as a loss, feels like a win to someone else. The sketchy, no nothing boyfriend who breaks up with his too good for him girlfriend may seem like a loss to the girl and a huge (crack open the champagne) win to the girl’s parents. Someone who completes a marathon and comes in…

HANGOVER- noun- the disagreeable physical aftereffects of drunkenness

  I have a hangover. It’s my first in a long time – I can’t really remember my last hangover, that’s how long it’s been. It’s not horrible, I did have a moment during my kickboxing class where I thought my stomach was going to give me cause to run for the restroom, but I managed to get things under control. In spite of the three Advil I took this morning the jumping was a bit hard on my head. All…

DOUBT- noun- a feeling of uncertainty about the truth, reality or nature of something.

  Doubt is a double-edged sword; on one hand it can save you from making decisions best not made. Doubt can keep you from being sucked into the infomercial’s promises and dial that number for the special offer available only for the next fifteen minutes, and if you’re one of the first one hundred callers you will receive a bonus prize valued at $49.99, and as tempting an offer it is, doubt keeps…

Iceland Writers’ Retreat

I open my inbox to see an announcement from The Iceland Writers Retreat for 2017 and I smiled, thinking back to my 2015 experience. It was one of the best experiences of my life, and that is quite the adulation- I have had many wonderful experiences. I learned about the retreat from a Facebook post, a daughter of an old friend posted she was going, an aspiring writer, her husband giving her the…

BIRTHDAY-noun – the anniversary of a person’s birth

  My son just celebrated his twenty-ninth birthday. We went out for dinner at an elegant, trendy restaurant, my son and his partner, my daughter and her boyfriend, only Emily our rescue child was missing, working at the track in Del Mar, CA. succeeding, enjoying her quest; she was missed, but it was a joy to have the rest of us together to celebrate my first born. There is nothing I would change…

SUPPORT-verb- to uphold a person, cause, to maintain, provide for

  I just finished reading Stephen King’s book ‘On Writing.’ I love Stephen King in the way that a true fan loves a sport’s team, with a crazed intensity that makes no sense to someone who doesn’t like sports. I think he is the Great American Novelist; no one holds a candle to him when it comes to things like character and dialogue and making a story real.  I know writers, mostly unpublished,…

So much time is spent waiting. We wait for opportunity, for love, for forgiveness, for knowledge, for faith, we wait, our lives spent in anticipation of what is ahead. We wait for the mundane, for amusement park ride lines to move, for all lines to move forward so we can get to the front of the line, buy what we want and then wait again, our groceries to be bagged, our totals to be rung. Life is…

BRAT- noun- a child, especially an annoying, spoiled, or impolite child

  I’m going to make myself sound old, like when you hear stories from old people who tell you how hard they had it growing up, and how easy things are today, and you roll your eyes and think, “yeah yeah, whatever,” and smile a condescending smile that says you’ve heard it before. I’m going to sound like one of those old people, but I have a legitimate gripe, and tell me if I’m wrong, but…