Lacey Louwagie

When Insecurity Interferes with my Love of Reading

Yesterday, it was time to pick a new book to read. Choosing a new book is almost a religious experience for me, something to be treated with reverence. I don’t want to grab something off the shelf in a hurry. I don’t want it to be dictated to

My Reading Life: Boymom by Ruth Whippman

I always thought I would be a mother of girls. My future dreams of children always featured girls — often two. I grew up in the middle of two sisters, no brothers. My husband grew up the only boy in his family, with three sisters. I spent the first half of

Why War is Never a Good Idea

Last month, my almost-seven-year-old asked for my reassurance at bedtime that fighting would never come to our town. He has picked up, through a combination of honest conversations with my husband and me and violent backyard games, some vague sense of what war entails. He already knew that war hadn’

My Substack: Writing My Way Back

When I began exploring Substack in earnest a few weeks ago, I noticed something very quickly: My publication name was boring. I hadn’t thought about a name before coming here, and as I was setting up my account, I gave a little shrug and thought, “Eh, Lacey’s Substack

Baby Shoes, or Why I Write About Motherhood

"For Sale: Baby Shoes. Never Worn." The six words above are widely considered to be the best piece of flash fiction ever written. Although often attributed to Ernest Hemingway, their actual origin appears to be unknown. I first encountered them, with the Hemingway attribution, in my writers group,

Find Me on Substack

Hello, friends and Internet randoms. 😄 I now have a substack where I'll be blogging if you have an account there and would like to add me. Right now my content there is free and will be until I am able to post on a regular basis. I'

My Reading Life: The Pandemic Books

When the world first shut down in March of 2020, I couldn't stop checking Facebook. I was desperate to see how other people were making sense of it. I must not have gotten what I needed out of those endless Facebook refreshes, because I don't remember

News

What I'm Working On

Hello! You may have noticed that my website looks different. I've recently moved it to a new host and revised the layout to make my work easier to find. Since 2017, I have been taking care of my young sons full-time, fitting my writing and editing work into

bloggers

My Reading Life: Heather B. Armstrong

Recently, I dug out my trusty (and dusty, and dead) Kindle, recharged it, and used it to preview some files I was working on for a client. One of the books languishing on my Kindle’s homepage was The Valedictorian of Being Dead by Heather B. Armstrong. I thought, not

Book Reviews

My Reading Life: The Abortion Books, Part 5 (Personal "Anti-Abortion" Stories)

Having “crossed over” from one side of the abortion debate to the other during my life, I continue to find stories of political, personal, or moral “conversion” compelling. I also wanted to be fair to both sides, to read from both sides, and to do my best to keep my

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My Reading Life: Bleaker House by Nell Stevens

Ah, the lure of “If Only …” to writers. If only I could quit my job, then I could really focus on my writing. If only I was independently wealthy. If only my kids were older. If only I had my own writing space. If only I could get an MFA.

Book Reviews

My Reading Life: The Abortion Books, Part 4 (Personal "Pro-Choice" Stories)

I need to start this post with a disclaimer. I read five personal stories from women who were in some way connected to the abortion debate. To keep this post from being even longer, I divided the personal stories into two posts: those written by women who believe abortion should

Book Reviews

The New Year's Resolution Post

It may be a little late for the “New Year’s Resolutions” post, but “better late than never” is my motto since becoming a parent (only after becoming a parent did I understand that it would seem “reasonable” to put certain tasks off for YEARS at a time). This year’

Uncategorized

Once You're a Writer

“When I was starting out, I thought that I would write for six months and do other things for six months. But it turned out that once you’re a writer, you’re a writer, and that’s what you do, and you can’t escape from it. It is

Book Reviews

My Reading Life: The Abortion Books, Part 3 (Novels)

I only read a couple novels on the topic of abortion, and both were from the young adult genre. I know there are probably hundreds of novels out there that deal with this topic, but this was never meant to be an exhaustive project — just a way to prioritize books

Uncategorized

My Reading Life: The Abortion Books, Part 2 (The Academic Books)

After almost six months, I’m wrapping up my self-directed abortion books study. Originally, I was going to talk about the books in the order I read them, but instead I decided to group them topically. I read three books that I would call “academic” treatments of abortion. Beyond Pro-Life

Blogging

Meander North Today

Earlier this fall, I had the honor of being one of the final pre-publication readers of my friend Marie Zhuikov’s new book, Meander North, which is on sale now! Although Marie is a member of my writer’s group, this was my first time reading Meander North. The book

book lists

My Reading Life: The Abortion Books, Part 1

During my recent book purge, I found certain books jumping out at me. First, This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor by Susan Wickland, and then, its counterpart: Redeemed by Grace: A Catholic Woman’s Journey to Planned Parenthood and Back by Ramona Trevino. I need to read

books

My Most Significant Book Purge. So Far.

For my New Year’s resolution, I said I was going to cut the number of cookbooks I own in half. I have not accomplished that, but I have done myself one better. I cut my ACTUAL book collection in half. Approximately. * * * For a few years now, I’ve had

authors

Author Biography Book Review: Star Child by Ibi Zoboi

Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler by Ibi Zoboi My rating: 4 of 5 stars A very readable and compelling biography of Octavia Butler told in prose and poetry. Written for middle-grade readers, it focuses on the author’s childhood and the historical forces that shaped her

The Writing Life

Writing is Not a Solitary Pursuit

Recently, a member of my writer’s group died. It was unexpected, and the three of us who remain don’t know very much about it. He lived alone, and another member raised the alarm when he didn’t respond to the emails about an upcoming meeting in his usual

reading

It's the Yearly Blog Post!

So, have I mentioned that I don’t do nearly as much writing as I used to or want to? I had babies, a pandemic happened, I’m the kids’ “primary caregiver” (read: I’m a SAHM who doesn’t get a lunch break), blah blah blah. But you know,

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Year of Expanded Reading Wrap-Up ... Sort Of

So, 2020 was supposed to be my “Year of Expanded Reading,” a year to focus on reading non-white and/or non-American authors. I came across the challenge to do this year-long project when my first son was under a year old. I remember thinking, “My life feels too chaotic to

motherhood

Writers of the Future Honorable Mention

I found out a couple weeks ago that a short story I entered into the Writers of the Future contest received an honorable mention. According to the judges, that means it held their interest enough to read the entire thing — which is a compliment, considering that the story was about

Uncategorized

Trouble Processing and My Year of Expanded Reading

I have been having a lot of trouble processing my life lately. And the world. In January, I found out I am pregnant again. It came as a surprise, which meant I immediately girded myself to get used to a whole lifetime that looked a little different from what I