thank you frannie. i plan to keep on keeping on. oddly i don’t feel regret for not starting sooner. maybe it’s just the right time. b

Thanks so much. b

What surprised me that most was finding a publisher for a volume of my translations of Estonian poetry and at the same time having one of my own poems published by a small lit mag called Mosaic. After years and years of writing and translating, I finally mustered up the moxie to send some work out, mostly because a writer friend of mine told me last year when I was 49, that if I don’t do it soon, it’ll be too late, Scary words to hear. But her words did make me wonder what the hell I was waiting for, and also, if I didn’t plan on getting published what the hell was I doing and why was I doing it. All good questions. Anyway, I fell braver now about sending out more poems.

I used to color my hair when I was in my 20s and 30s because it was fun to try different looks and hennas, etc. But then when I hit 40 and the grey started coming in I stopped because it went from being fun to trying to cover up the inevitable. Also, I felt that every other TV commercial was pounding me to look younger, hide that grey, cover that laugh line and frankly, I didn’t appreciate the mind-control efforts by the cosmetic companies and so I decided to go au naturelle into middle age. On a number of occasions women have approached me and told me they admire my courage for not coloring my hair. Not that I judge anyone who does color their hair. I have other cosmetic practices that I believe make me look better, so I’m no paragon. Just answering the question.