Maya Rushing Walker

November 4, 2022

can we write about things we know nothing about?

(I'll get back to the enneagram in a minute, I just wanted to interrupt myself for a bit.) One thing I discovered recently is that I know absolutely nothing about the lives of the very wealthy. By wealthy, I mean the sorts of people who appear on the Forbes list of billionaires. I've never paid much attention to it before, because I al...
Read more
October 11, 2022

pseudo-science or useful tool? the enneagram

I approach internet quizzes with a slight sense of shame. I need to keep reminding myself that they are "for fun" and don't mean anything, and most of the time they are trying to sell me something. But I have a fondness for puzzles and suspenseful stories, and internet quizzes satisfy this itch when my current read or Netflix binge isn...
Read more
October 10, 2022

it's not just me!

Here's a screen capture of the meditation app in my phone. I felt so much relief...it's not just me! A long post about Myers-Briggs, the enneagram, and me--coming tomorrow.
Read more
September 22, 2022

back to work I go

I hope you are doing well! I wanted to send you a quick note to thank you for signing up for my personal blog! I haven’t written anything here since I decluttered and reorganized my newsletter in April and May, but I’m back to work again. I gave myself a little break over the summer as my children wandered in and out of the house, and ...
Read more
September 21, 2022

back to school

Summer is over, fall is here. In northern New England, fall started in August, with the changeover in bugs and the nighttime temperature drop. It gets foggy and misty, and when it rains it’s COLD. This happens every year and yet I am sad every time it happens. I love summer. It’s not as if I hate winter. It’s been nearly forty years si...
Read more
May 5, 2022

Lessons from Hollywood 🎥🍿set design

Well, it was warm, and then it wasn’t. Unless you count daytime temps in the 40s as warm, which this Hawaii girl does not! Brrr. I heard the front come through last night, with the wind whipping against the house and sending icy tentacles down the chimneys. My husband said that this is GOOD, as the flowers will last longer this way. Th...
Read more
April 26, 2022

A seasonal muse, because to all things there is a season 💐

The daffodils are out! I was in New York City last week for Easter weekend and I marveled at all the light green leaves on the trees and the daffodils everywhere. I thought it was still very much brown and dead at home, but within a couple of days of our return, the forsythia was out and the daffodils were everywhere! Early daffodils, ...
Read more
April 21, 2022

How to keep your brain well-exercised and ready for what comes next 💪

My husband got back from a business trip late last week. It was his first business trip since January 2020, and since he had cut way back on his work schedule to care for his dad in his last couple of years, it was actually his first significant overseas work gig since around 2017. He quite enjoyed this trip, and to be honest, I quite ...
Read more
April 8, 2022

Change isn't just a-comin', it's here and now 🔥 🔥 🔥

How are things going with you? I've had three visits with my 91 year-old mother in the past week. She lives with my sister, who is out of town, so I'm on call for things like grocery shopping. My mom is a reminder that we all keep changing as we get older. She listens more than she used to. She is more open than she was in the past. An...
Read more
April 8, 2022

My final sneak peek before publication, EVER YOUR AFFECTIONATE

As promised, here’s an excerpt from my new novella, Ever Your Affectionate! If you dig back a bit in this blog you’ll find a couple of other excerpts, too. Be warned that this hasn’t gone through a complete copy edit yet, so this is not the version you will get when it is published! This is still a draft, albeit a partly-edited draft. ...
Read more
April 1, 2022

Are you feeling social? 💃🏻 Happy April!

Don’t worry, no April fools jokes here! But happy April regardless! For those of you in the southern hemisphere, are you excited to be heading into cooler weather? Your cousins up here in the north are ready for warmer temperatures, flowers, and green grass! But I would love it if you would share some photos and descriptions of autumn ...
Read more
March 31, 2022

Be whimsical this spring...read at whim🧚🏼

Vol. 5 No. 12 Hello there, (NOTE: I'm spring-cleaning my newsletter! Starting next week I'll ALSO be posting the newsletter to my blog because there's a chance some of you may accidentally get skipped as I clean, ESPECIALLY IF YOU USE GMAIL, so if you don't want to take your chances, please sign up for this blog at the bottom of this p...
Read more
February 4, 2022

Serial Novel: Meg Chapter 2

When the letter came, she was staying with a friend at his mid-town apartment and working a part-time job at the Metropolitan Museum. She didn't have enough money to pay any rent, but he was an old friend, and she watered his plants, walked his dog, and made dinner every night. Alexander the Great, a dignified chihuahua, was in seventh...
Read more
January 10, 2022

Serial Novel: Meg Chapter 1

“Arabic was incredibly easy to learn, at least at first. At least for Meg. Ana means I. So if Meg wanted to introduce herself, all she had to say was, "Ana Meg," or, "I'm Meg." It's an equational sentence, her Arabic tutor back at school had told her. Ana=I.” When she first got to Egypt, she said a lot of "Ana Meg." And then as soon as...
Read more
January 9, 2022

Hello 2022!

[I forgot to send this out when I posted it, sorry! Just FYI, not all the blog posts go out to the blog email list, just the ones that are more “informational” in nature.] Do you have regular seasonal moods? I normally have a bout of the January blues, so I’m going easy on myself this year. I’m counting down the days, because I’m usual...
Read more
December 4, 2021

Too. Many. Words.

Last summer I stopped reading. I’m a novelist, so I consider reading to be part of my work. And for the longest time, I had three books going at once. I had an ebook on my phone/ebook device, a print book from the bookstore, and an audiobook. No matter what I was doing, I was plugged into a book. So it was weird, bordering on an emerge...
Read more
November 12, 2021

What's your chronotype? otherwise known as earlybirds v. night owls

I was writing a newsletter about how jangled I feel after the time change this week, when I realized that half the battle for me is that I chose this week to "flip" my daily schedule. Just like me to forget all about the time change and make another big change at a time when I'm going to feel dazed and jet-lagged. So I went down a bit ...
Read more
November 6, 2021

Mood Management Mode

I was thinking about productivity today, or rather--LACK of productivity. The thought floated into my head because I noticed--randomly--that my husband tends to say things like, "I procrastinated on doing X." It's like he quickly defaults to self-blame without even considering WHY he held off on doing some task or other. Writers have a...
Read more
October 31, 2021

hey! this is a blog! what's the difference between the blog and the newsletter?

I've been writing a newsletter to my readers since around January 2018. That's coming up on four years. I can't believe I've kept going for so long. In the early months it was super erratic. I think I sent a newsletter out every month until around April, and then nothing until the following fall. By winter 2018 I had published my first...
Read more
July 28, 2021

It's Tuesday...

...and I'm listening to this as I finally get back to my email after working like crazy on a take-home exam for my religion class: https://youtu.be/mBIheNcPkRs If you haven't heard from me, I'm on it! Happy end-of-July vibes! Maya Rushing Walker author of contemporary and historical fiction mayarushingwalker.net
Read more
July 16, 2021

I know I shouldn't do this BUT...

...I'm going to post something I literally just wrote in its most raw, unpolished form, aaack! I'm not sure why I had the sudden urge, but here it is! It's a letter from Roman Dryden to Lydia Barrow. If you've read The Portrait, then you know who Lydia is. If not, well, it's okay. All you need to know is that this is a Regency period h...
Read more
June 9, 2021

What I’ve been learning from Netflix lately

Lately there has been an explosion of Korean dramas on my favorite streaming service, Netflix. There are so many that I literally don’t have time to watch them all. The back catalogue is huge, but there are also brand-new dramas that are being trickled out as they are shown in Korea. Law School, Vincenzo, Hospital Playlist...they range...
Read more
June 3, 2021

Sneak peek! Draft chapter of EVER YOUR AFFECTIONATE

I'm hard at work on my next book, a Regency era historical novella. It's called Ever Your Affectionate, and is written entirely as a first-person journal. I started writing this book this spring when vaccinations became plentiful and there was a sense of optimism in the air. I'll get right back to Twelfth Night, which is a beast of a b...
Read more
May 28, 2021

Y'ALL I SAW A DOUBLE RAINBOW

Hey! Maybe it's common where you are, or maybe I don't pay attention, but this is what I saw! I have a SkiErg machine, which is essentially a cross-country ski machine, next to a big picture window in my study. I was doing my cardio workout with earbuds in, watching an intense and scary show on Netflix, when I happened to glance out th...
Read more
May 13, 2021

Hello from Maya!

Welcome! I can't believe I'm "starting" a blog. Aren't blogs, like, so 2005? I used to read blogs, and I mostly don't anymore. It feels too hard to try to figure out what's relevant or accurate. Also, when I am scanning my email on the go, I'm not likely to click over to a random link. Again, it's just too hard, and I believe that my p...
Read more