37 Comments
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Stanley Shanfield's avatar

You grabbed me with your story. I was trying to do some "work", caught sight of your descriptions, and read everything. Your honesty is devastating.

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Anna Schott's avatar

Thanks for reading, and for your comment.

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Charlotte (has) Baby Brain's avatar

Oh wow, I don't know how I haven't read this piece until now but yeah .. wow.

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Anna Schott's avatar

❤️

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Sally's avatar

Oh yeah, this is great! You have a huge gift!

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Anna Schott's avatar

Thank you

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Emily's avatar

This made me miss the Sierra foothills so much. Dry sugar pine scent...cool river. Summer

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HMM's avatar

Yo tambien

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Ally Hamilton's avatar

Love this, so happy to keep reading.

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Rona Maynard's avatar

Wonderful, Anna. You have a captivating sense of character and place. Your writing feels inevitable, as if it simply unspooled. It takes a lot of work to make writing look this natural.

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Anna Schott's avatar

Thank you, Rona... I'm finding that writing memories as they come is very helpful, then the work is really just editing/getting rid of what's unnecessary.

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Georgina Bruce's avatar

Your writing is great. Really engaging.

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Anna Schott's avatar

Thank you!

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Christiana White's avatar

Ooh, thrilling writing. I’m right there with you, and a fellow Californian (Bay Area).

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Anna Schott's avatar

Thank you!

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Jude Jones (they/them)'s avatar

I’m really into this! Thank you for sharing it here.

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rojeen rahman's avatar

Beautifully written. I enjoyed every bit of it!

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<Mary L. Tabor>'s avatar

You go, girl! Now you are publishing it,

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Anna Schott's avatar

Thank you, Mary! It's a bit scary, but exciting.

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<Mary L. Tabor>'s avatar

Keep on keepin' on, Anna.

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Amy Gabrielle's avatar

I held my breath as I read Jake questioning you. You captured my attention from the start. I liked how you skillfully added humor to the aftermath of a terrible accident with your colorful rant in the ambulance. I'm just really impressed that you published it, and then decided to un-publish, and then rework it. I just started a memoir too and there are some heavy topics. I find myself reliving some of it as I write. Does that happen for you? It doesn't make me want to stop writing, but I hadn't expected so much emotion to come up as I type the words. I look forward to reading more of your work!

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Anna Schott's avatar

Thank you. Yeah, the re-living loses its edge after 100 revisions, thankfully. It's truly therapeutic too, to be able to take the long view and look at things from some distance. Another reason I'm re-writing it is because I want to add a lot more, which I'm excited about.

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David Roberts's avatar

Anna,

I found this so engaging and beautifully written.You have me rooting for you and respecting you and wanting to see what's next.

But I have to disagree on "Stairway,." It's one of my favorite Led Zep songs.

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Anna Schott's avatar

Haha–fair enough. And thank you.

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appleton king's avatar

genuine it carries well theres a sense of a young woman reaching out to fill with action the boring moments she hasn't found entirely capable of filling for herself yet despite the violin or other passions

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Cabot O'Callaghan's avatar

This brought back memories… I lived in Grass Valley for a year in the early 80’s. Went to Lyman Gilmore jr High. Loved it. Miss the incense cedars and the Yuba River.

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Anna Schott's avatar

Wow! I was only there a few years but swimming in that river remains my favorite thing in the world.

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