Author: Wendy Kennar

Blank

Posted on by Wendy Kennar

Many readers are familiar with Zibby Owens and her many roles in the book world, including: her independent bookstore in Santa Monica, California (Zibby’s Bookshop), her podcast (“Totally Booked with Zibby,” formerly known as “Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books”), founder and CEO of Zibby Media – which includes her publishing house (Zibby Books), children’s book author (Princess Charming, published in 2022), anthology editor (Moms Don’t Have Time to Have Kids: A Timeless Anthology and Moms Don’t Have Time To: A Quarantine Anthology), and memoirist (Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature). 

And with the publication of Blank in 2024, we add novelist to the list.

I found myself quickly turning pages, not at all able to predict how things were (or weren’t) going to work out for our protagonist Pippa Jones. Plus, I was delighted to find many real life, book-related references throughout the novel, including the mention of the memoir My What-If Year (a memoir written by Alisha Fernandez Miranda, which was the first book published by Zibby Books) as well as a nod to real-life “Goodreads.com,” named “FabulousReads.com” in the novel.

(By the way, are we friends on Goodreads?)

The novel has a lot going on, tackling a range of topics including the publishing industry, female friendships, marriage and adultery, social media, and anti-Semitism. 

Honestly, my favorite parts were those that were clearly written as a celebration and tribute to the magic of books. Allow me to share a few passages:

“Publishing a blank novel would be a commentary on the literary world. I could say that I was addressing the reader’s almost nonexistent attention span. To keep the reader’s attention, they’d have to be able to read the words in, well, no time. To read this book, they wouldn’t have to do anything.”

“Imagine someone just came up with the idea of reading. Like, ‘Hey, let’s launch a product with no pictures, just words and letters. To enjoy it, you have to sit in one place and stare at it for hours, and then the whole story will slowly unfold just to you inside your brain. It might take you months to find out what happens in the end. It’s a completely solitary endeavor and you can’t do anything else at the same time. Oh, and you need to purchase it up front, hoping you’ll like it. But if you don’t, there’s no refund. Sorry! And there are literally millions of other products that look basically identical — some are great and some are terrible, and there’s almost no way to know ahead of time. Good luck. Go spend thirty dollars.’” 

“That’s what books are supposed to do:  connect readers to authors. Readers to each other. That’s why book clubs are so popular! It’s like that mural on Montana: ‘Stories are best when shared.’” (This is a nod to the mural outside of Zibby’s Bookshop, located on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica, California.)

This photo was taken back in January 2024

Friends — one more thing to share this week. If you didn’t see my Instagram post from a few days ago, I made some changes to the home page of my website. I’d love to know what you think. And, if you know of a reader, writer, and/or someone living with a chronic illness who might enjoy my weekly content, please let them know about my blog. 

Please note: I am including a link to buy the book that I’m highlighting this week. If you use my link, I do make a small commission on your purchase at no additional cost to you. I am working with Bookshop.org which also sends a portion of the profit to support local, independent bookstores.



Defining Disability

Posted on by Wendy Kennar

The work in my Mastermind program continues. 

Part of our tasks has been to think about what we write and why. (I wrote a bit about this in a May blog post. Click here if you missed it.)

This week, however, I am sharing two photos with you as another example of what I write and why.

The photo shows my seventeen-year-old son and me parasailing, a week-and-a-half-ago during our family trip to Oahu. We calmly dangled 1000 feet above the Pacific Ocean. We talked and marveled at the incredible view below us and around us, noticing the quiet and the sense of peace we felt being that high up.

On that day, in those moments, my body was physically strong enough to climb aboard the boat, maneuver into the harnesses, and smile and wave at those down on the boat looking up at us. 

Yet back at the hotel, my backpack held my blue disabled parking placard. And when I left Los Angeles and arrived in Honolulu I received wheelchair assistance at both airports. (I also had wheelchair assistance at both airports for our return flight.)

Both situations are true. 

I may fit the more narrow, stereotypical idea of a disabled woman when someone sees me sitting in a wheelchair at the airport. 

But, I’m still a disabled woman, even when I’m gliding through the air, with a multi-colored parachute open behind us. 

And that is why I write — to demonstrate there is no definitive, one-and-done definition of disability.

Friends, I’m curious. Have any of you gone parasailing? Where? What was your experience like? Please feel free to share in the comments!

Lucy Sings on Lucy Street

Posted on by Wendy Kennar

You may remember I have written about Robin Roberts before. In case you missed it, you can read my post about Brighter By the Day by clicking here.

Click here to read this post featuring From the Heart.

And click here to read my post about Everybody’s Got Something.

I’m definitely a fan. 

This week’s post features Lucy Sings on Lucy Street by Lawrence Roberts and Sally-Ann Roberts (siblings of Robin Roberts), with an epilogue by Robin Roberts. 

Not only is this a charming children’s book with delightful illustrations by Jestenia Southerland, it’s the story of how I came to own this book that makes it even more special to me. 

A friend of mine surprised me by ordering this picture book and having it sent to my address. She and I both admire Robin Roberts and find inspiration in the words she has written. It’s a natural extension, then, that we would both want to support a children’s book written by two of Robin’s siblings and inspired by their beloved mother, Lucimarian “Lucy” Tolliver. 

My friend knew that. And she didn’t just tell me about the book, she bought me a copy and completely surprised me by having it delivered to my home. 

At its heart, the book has a timeless, ageless message:

“Life is filled with ups and downs.

No matter what,

keep a song in your heart.

Keep singing.” 

In the book, Lucy’s family is experiencing tough times and struggling during the Depression. But through it all, Lucy finds comfort in her family, her singing, and her good friend, Wanda.

Friends. How lucky Lucy was to have Wanda as her good friend.

And how lucky I am to have Nina F. as my good friend. (There are two Nina’s in my life, so I’m using the teacher technique to differentiate between the two special Nina’s I know.)

Please note: I am including a link to buy the book that I’m highlighting this week. If you use my link, I do make a small commission on your purchase at no additional cost to you. I am working with Bookshop.org which also sends a portion of the profit to support local, independent bookstores.


Love + Books

Posted on by Wendy Kennar

June is Pride Month, sometimes referred to as LGBTQ Pride Month. It’s a time of celebration and reflection and commemoration.

As a white woman married to an African-American man and the mother of a mixed-race son, I understand – to an extent – how it feels to love someone some members of society may say I have no business loving. 

But love isn’t business. 

And who I love is of no one else’s concern. 

By extension, who someone chooses to love and the pronouns and gender someone chooses to identify with (or not) are none of my concern. (Also, I do realize there is so much more to Pride Month than what I’m suggesting here.)

So I’ll keep this post relatively short and to the point. 

And look to my candle for words of wisdom — All you need is love and books. 

This week, I’m posting a rainbow stack of books, featuring (in ROY G BIV order):

How to Walk Away by Katherine Center

Leaving Orbit: Notes from the Last Days of American Spaceflight by Margaret Lazarus Dean

Magical Meet Cute by Jean Meltzer 

Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory 

Call Us What We Carry: Poems by Amanda Gorman

Colors of Paris by Mike Gerrard

This week (and all weeks, really), let’s celebrate love and books, in all their beautiful forms. 

Please note: I am including a link to buy the book that I’m highlighting this week. If you use my link, I do make a small commission on your purchase at no additional cost to you. I am working with Bookshop.org which also sends a portion of the profit to support local, independent bookstores.

Time to Take a Seat

Posted on by Wendy Kennar
Image Credit: Wishbone Words Magazine

Friends, I’m pleased to share that my personal essay, Time to Take a Seat, has been published in Wishbone Words Magazine, Issue 15. 

This piece was a difficult one to write. It’s a personal essay that went through many revisions before I submitted it.  

It’s a personal essay about my decision to purchase a wheelchair. 

I’m grateful Wishbone Words Magazine provides this space for me and other “disabled, chronically ill, and/or neurodiverse writers and artists” to share our experiences and our creations in a safe, inclusive space. 

You can click here to learn more about purchasing Wishbone Words Magazine, Issue 15. 

Image Credit: Wishbone Words Magazine

What I Write and Why

Posted on by Wendy Kennar

I am currently participating in a three-month (May1 – July 31) Mastermind program run by Dan Blank. This Mastermind is different than the one I wrote about in March. (If you missed that post, you can click here to read it.)

This Mastermind uses the ideas and information Dan wrote about it in his book Be the Gateway. I read this book a couple of years ago and wrote about it here. I’m re-reading the book, to coincide with our weekly topics. 

Why am I doing all this? Because I believe there is an audience for my memoir-in-essays. And while I continue to research publishing paths (so far, I have entered a couple of competitions which offer a publishing contract to winners), I want to make sure I’m as ready as I can be for that publication journey. I want my online presence — my website, my weekly blog, my Instagram account, and my as-of-now-unwritten Substack, to be as solid and welcoming to my readership as they can be. I want to make clear what it is I write and why I write it. 

With that in mind, this week I’d like to share with you, my dear weekly blog readers, something I shared with the Mastermind group just last week. The comments had involved thinking of our own missions and our creative work and what our creative work promises to others. I wrote:

“Dan, lots to think about here. As you spoke about the transformation our mission and our work promises something clicked for me. I was transported back in time, when I received my diagnosis, and later that day went home and Googled this rare autoimmune disease of mine. I found a handful to links. That’s it. I wanted to know someone else out there in this big world of ours was living with the same chronic illness and still fully living their life. I wanted to know I wasn’t going to feel sick forever. I wanted to know what happened next, after coming home with a name for the symptoms I had been experiencing. And I couldn’t find out any of those things. That is why I write what I do. That’s the transformation I hope to provide for my readers.”

And from that, I’m proud to share My Mission Statement with you — what I create and why:

“Everyone lives with pain and scars of some kind; some easily visible, some seemingly invisible. I write personal nonfiction to demonstrate the wide-ranging experiences of disability and to offer connection and support to others living with chronic illness and chronic pain.”  

Thank you, friends, for being on this journey with me! I welcome any feedback or comments you have. Please feel free to share.

Please note: I am including a link to buy the book that I’m highlighting this week. If you use my link, I do make a small commission on your purchase at no additional cost to you. I am working with Bookshop.org which also sends a portion of the profit to support local, independent bookstores.


Glow in the F*cking Dark

Posted on by Wendy Kennar

Two years ago (yikes! already?) I wrote a blog post in praise of Tara Schuster’s Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies. (In case you missed it, click here to read that blog post.)

This week’s blog post is in praise of Ms. Schuster’s second book, Glow in the F*cking Dark: Simple Practices to Heal Your Soul from Someone Who Learned the Hard Way. 

Once again, I found so many statements that caused me to pause my reading. Sometimes I re-read those statements. Other times, I sat and thought about what I had read and thought about how that applied to my life or why that statement resonated with me. 

This week, I’m sharing some of those statements with you:

“We are stars. I mean that quite literally. Most of the elements that make up our bodies came from the Big Bang, from the very things that make up stars. I think you’ve probably heard that before and it isn’t a fable, it’s true. Isn’t that just about the most enchanting thing to think about? That you are made of stars?”

“I know you have the power to glow because you already do. The human body is bioluminescent. It glows on its own. Ultrasensitive cameras can photograph our natural radiance. So, you glow already, whether you like it or not. Now is the time to clear off the dirt, the cobwebs, and the ghosts that are obscuring the shine within you and set that glow free.”

This book, Ms. Shuster writes, is “… for anyone who is tired, hurting, and feeling like their shine is gone.”

This statement is listed as one of Ms. Schuster’s life truths:  “When we try to fight reality, we lose. The more we reject how we actually feel, and the real circumstances of our lives, the more pain we put ourselves in. I’ve come to realize that the distance between how things are and how I want them to be is the exact measure of my suffering.” 

“My life is boring and predictable and because of that it’s easier to be creative and content. BEING BORING IS AMAZING! I spend almost no time thinking about how I will structure the ‘free’ blocks in my day because the rituals I have created have taken the heavy lifting out of the mundane.” 

“One of my favorite quotes in the whole wide world comes from the author Annie Dillard — she wrote, ‘How we spend out days is, of course, how we spend our lives.’ Spend your days living what you care about and feel yourself light up with life. Your life.” 

And since I find it way too easy to find fault with my body (how it looks, how it does and doesn’t function), I loved this: “… now I see my body for what it is — a living, breathing, moving sculpture, one of a kind and priceless, worthy of my absolute care and adoration.”
“What about body gratitude? What about the fact that if you have a body, even if it comes with complications and pain, you can ultimately be glad to be on earth?”

“I think this fear of making ‘bad’ choices is why we very often end up on our ‘Good Enough Plateaus,’ where it’s safe and comfy and there’s a Starbucks around the corner and we know exactly what we can get.”
“… but we get into real trouble when we start believing that’s it, when we stop expanding, growing, and shoving off on new adventures. Then we deprive ourselves of the opportunity not only to mature and taste a richer life but also to deepen our experience by knowing what it means to come up short.”

“… if you truly appreciate the unbelievably precious gift of your being, you will do everything to live it to its very fullest. That’s how we show gratitude for our existence, damn it!”  

My dear readers, have any of you read Ms. Schuster’s book(s)? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Please note: I am including a link to buy the book that I’m highlighting this week. If you use my link, I do make a small commission on your purchase at no additional cost to you. I am working with Bookshop.org which also sends a portion of the profit to support local, independent bookstores.

My New Career

Posted on by Wendy Kennar
Image credit: Santa Fe Writers Project

“My son, Ryan, started kindergarten the year I retired from teaching. I took it as a sign, a coincidence worth paying attention to. I spent twelve years teaching, encouraging, caring for, and loving my students. As Ryan was about to embark on his own twelve-year public school career as a student, I hoped he would encounter teachers doing the same thing. I hoped my teaching career counted as a deposit in the good karma bank and that Ryan would be on the receiving end of the dividends.”

The paragraph above is an excerpt from my personal essay, “My New Career.”

And, I’m happy to say “My New Career” has recently been published in Santa Fe Writers Project Journal Issue 32/Spring 2025. 

You can click here to access the entire Issue.

And if you’re short on time, click here to be taken directly to my personal essay.

Though I do hope you’ll have a chance to read through the other pieces in the Issue. There are fiction and non-fiction works as well as poetry, and they all speak to the Journal’s theme of “Renewal.”

Teacher Appreciation

Posted on by Wendy Kennar

The first week of May is Teacher Appreciation Week, and this year I find myself becoming teary-eyed when I think back to my own days in the classroom. 

I taught elementary school for twelve years — kindergarten, fourth grade, and fifth grade. This year marked thirteen years since I retired due to a disability, which means the scales have tipped, and I have not been a teacher longer than I was a teacher. 

I’ll be honest, at the end, I wasn’t enjoying teaching as much as I used to. For one thing, the school culture changed after our principal, the woman who literally changed my life by hiring me, retired. 

Then, a teacher’s effectiveness became dependent on how well her students scored on standardized tests. Tests that, in my opinion, didn’t mean a whole lot. 

I measured my effectiveness in the kiddos that came back to visit. The parent who told me her son had never liked to read, until I was his teacher. The positive changes in student behavior I saw when students were in my class. The students who were not getting into fights on the schoolyard. The child who stopped throwing furniture. The child who stopped running out of class. And I like to think those changes were possible not just because of what I taught but how I taught. Because I hugged. Because I told “my kids” I loved them. (I often called my students “my kids.”) Because I gave my kids small gifts for December holidays. And Halloween. And Valentine’s Day. And the end of the school year. 

All these years later, I occasionally have former students reach out and email me photos and/or updates about their lives — as college students, spouses, parents. It’s truly a gift to know I had a positive impact on a young person’s life.

The books you see in these photos were gifts from my students. They are tokens of love, and I’ll treasure them always. (I did my best to hide last names.)

Please, consider this blog post a polite reminder to thank the teachers in your life — past and present. You don’t have to buy them a book or a gift card. Though you certainly can. (We give our son’s teachers gift cards.) A heartfelt thank you — in a note or an email or signed inside a book — are all lovely tokens of gratitude. 

Do you have a favorite teacher and/or school-related memory? Please feel free to share in the comments.

(Sidenote — I know there are teachers in our schools who seem like they don’t care. These teachers give the impression they’re only in that classroom for the paycheck. But those teachers are the minority. And I’m pretty sure people like that can be found in almost every job and career.)

Am I a Spoonie?

Posted on by Wendy Kennar

“Choosing to define yourself as a spoonie is an individual decision. It is not a medical term bestowed upon you by someone else. Other terms, such as disabled and chronically ill, are assigned to us by those in the medical field. No one will call you a spoonie, until you decide to call yourself one. Being a spoonie was fine for others, but I didn’t think it applied to me. Until there was no denying that it did.”

The paragraph above is excerpted from my personal essay, “Am I a Spoonie?” which I’m proud to share was recently published in FLARE Magazine. From the website: “FLARE was named after autoimmune flares one gets when they are chronically ill and a play on the word “flair” for writers to show their “flair” despite the “flares” they encounter.”

Click here to read “Am I a Spoonie?” in its entirety.

For my chronic illness friends, do you consider yourself a spoonie? Or is there another term your prefer? Please share if you’re comfortable!