<p>New Year 2017. Challenges and opportunities ahead. I don&#8217;t often do straight-up political posts, but this time, I&#8217;m going to start with politics. Like many of us, I&#8217;m concerned for our country&#8217;s future. Like many of us, I was disappointed and scared after November&#8217;s presidential election. Over the past several weeks, I&#8217;ve been thinking a &hellip; </p> <p><a href="https://krisfaatz.com/2017/01/12/zen-for-ten-12-jazz-stories-and-resistance

<p>[Note: this week&#8217;s post takes a brief break from music, to honor the memory of one of my favorite writers.] British writer Richard Adams, who wrote the international bestseller Watership Down, died this past Christmas Eve. He was 96. I remember: Waking up in the middle of the night, in my grandparents&#8217; house, in the &hellip; </p> <p><a href="https://krisfaatz.com/2016/12/28/zen-for-ten-11-for-the-storyteller/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="scr

<p>This post is a day late&#8230;and I&#8217;ll start by admitting it&#8217;s been a tough week. Like all of us, I try to keep up with what&#8217;s happening in the world, but lately it seems like everything is going from bad to worse. There&#8217;s chaos and destruction everywhere you look. I don&#8217;t know about you, but &hellip; </p> <p><a href="https://krisfaatz.com/2016/12/16/zen-for-ten-10-finding-hope/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-te

<p>They&#8217;re here! This past Friday, the advance reader copies of my novel arrived. A moment nine years in the making! 🙂 Yay! To celebrate, today&#8217;s blog post includes a reading from the book, along with more of Maurice Ravel&#8217;s suite Ma Mere L&#8217;Oye, which I introduced in last week&#8217;s post. This week&#8217;s excerpt is the &hellip; </p> <p><a href="https://krisfaatz.com/2016/12/08/zen-for-ten-9-its-a-book/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span cla

<p>The ARCs are coming! My novel&#8217;s advance reader copies are making their way from Toronto to Baltimore. Soon, I&#8217;ll get to see and hold my first book. Can&#8217;t wait!! 🙂 To celebrate that, today&#8217;s blog post features some of the music that worked its way into To Love A Stranger. Today&#8217;s feature: Excerpts from Ma &hellip; </p> <p><a href="https://krisfaatz.com/2016/12/01/zen-for-ten-8-telling-the-story/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class=

<p>Today&#8217;s features: Sonata in B flat Major and Sonata in D Major, by Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) Welcome back! Today&#8217;s video highlights two of my favorite short pieces by Italian Baroque composer Domenico Scarlatti. About the music: When we think about the word &#8220;Sonata,&#8221; we usually think about a long piece of music, often divided into &hellip; </p> <p><a href="https://krisfaatz.com/2016/11/17/zen-for-ten-7-a-dose-of-sun/" class="more-link">Continue

<p>Today&#8217;s features: Sonata Op. 13 &#8220;Pathetique,&#8221; mvt. 2, by Ludwig van Beethoven; Prelude no. 2 by George Gershwin This week I&#8217;m breaking the blog&#8217;s pattern. Last night was the end of our long and difficult presidential election cycle here in the US. It&#8217;s an intense time full of intense feelings. I woke up this morning &hellip; </p> <p><a href="https://krisfaatz.com/2016/11/09/zen-for-ten-6-the-world-needs-each-one-of-us/" class="more-link"

<p>Blog Subscriber Bonus! When you subscribe to the blog and join our email list, you’ll receive a PDF of my flash-fiction story “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,” which I wrote in response to Charles Mingus’s jazz tune of the same name. Subscribe (using the black button on the right), read the story, and then listen here &hellip; </p> <p><a href="https://krisfaatz.com/2016/11/03/zen-for-ten-5-want-to-change-the-world-start-here/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-r

<p>Blog Subscriber Bonus! When you subscribe to the blog and join our email list, you&#8217;ll receive a PDF of my flash-fiction story &#8220;Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,&#8221; which I wrote in response to Charles Mingus&#8217;s jazz tune of the same name. Subscribe (using the black button on the right), read the story, and then listen here &hellip; </p> <p><a href="https://krisfaatz.com/2016/10/27/zen-for-ten-post-4-brahms-for-your-heart/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span

<p>Welcome to Zen for Ten: Storytelling and Sound. New posts go up every Thursday and include a short piano-performance video, commentary about the piece and composer, and (often) a storytelling thought-exercise to go with the music. Take ten minutes, enjoy some music, and refresh your mind. If you like today’s post, please SUBSCRIBE to the &hellip; </p> <p><a href="https://krisfaatz.com/2016/10/20/zen-for-ten-post-3-bach-for-your-brain/" class="more-link">Continue reading <s

<p>Welcome to Zen for Ten: Storytelling and Sound. New posts go up every Thursday and include a short piano-performance video, commentary about the piece and composer, and (often) a storytelling thought-exercise to go with the music. Take ten minutes, enjoy some music, and refresh your mind. If you like today’s post, please SUBSCRIBE to the &hellip; </p> <p><a href="https://krisfaatz.com/2016/10/13/zen-for-ten-post-2-a-taste-of-baroque/" class="more-link">Continue reading <sp

<p>Today marks the launch of my new feature blog, Zen for Ten: Storytelling and Sound. Every Thursday I&#8217;ll post a short piano-performance video, along with commentary about the piece and composer, and (sometimes) a storytelling thought-exercise to go with the music. Take ten minutes, enjoy some music, and refresh your mind. If you like today&#8217;s &hellip; </p> <p><a href="https://krisfaatz.com/2016/10/06/new-storytelling-and-sound/" class="more-link">Continue reading

<p>This entry first appeared on Kaaterskill Basin Journal&#8216;s blog, and was written in response to their 100 Rejections in 100 Days Challenge. Maybe I should start with the good news. My first novel, To Love A Stranger, is coming out next summer from Blue Moon Publishers in Toronto. If I added up all the rejections &hellip; </p> <p><a href="https://krisfaatz.com/2016/09/27/the-100-rejections-challenge/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">T

<p>Where does hate come from? What makes a person want to take a weapon and go into a crowded place, full of people trying get an education or watch a movie or have a night out, and open fire? Why would someone want to destroy so many strangers’ lives? In this country, we’ve asked that &hellip; </p> <p><a href="https://krisfaatz.com/2016/06/13/after-orlando/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">After Orlando</span></a></p>

<p>So you&#8217;re going to publish a novel&#8230; For a while I&#8217;ve been wanting to post about my first novel contract, signed about six weeks ago. I’ve wanted to post about the publisher who’s willing to take a chance on this first beloved project, and take a chance on its creator too. I’ve wanted to talk &hellip; </p> <p><a href="https://krisfaatz.com/2016/05/18/truth-on-the-page/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Truth on the&nbsp;p

<p>(on Election 2016, art, and fear) I hate fights. Avoid them at pretty much any cost. The idea of dealing with an angry person – especially if they’re angry at me – sends me into a tailspin of panic. I don’t argue, rarely stand up for myself, and have a hard time coming up with &hellip; </p> <p><a href="https://krisfaatz.com/2016/03/19/pen-as-sword/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Pen as Sword</span></a></p>

<p>(on stubbornness, and fixing what isn’t broken) Sam and I met about eight years ago, in December of 2007. At the time, I thought we were going to have a quick-flowering, perfect friendship. Life took on new zest. I felt alive and then some, as if I had fireworks going off in my heart. Before &hellip; </p> <p><a href="https://krisfaatz.com/2016/01/26/about-sam/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">About Sam</span></a></p>

<p>(about nearsightedness, collies, and putting words together) One afternoon when I was in kindergarten, the school nurse called me down to her office. She had me stand behind a line of masking tape on the carpet and read letters off a chart on the wall. Sunlight glared on the chart and made a blurry haze &hellip; </p> <p><a href="https://krisfaatz.com/2016/01/19/choosing/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Choosing</span></a></p>

<p>Here &#8217;tis&#8230;my first venture into the wide world of writer websites. Please check out my stories and the teasers for my two completed novels. Photo credits belong to my husband Paul Faatz, unless noted otherwise. Thank you for visiting!</p>

<p>Welcome to my brand-new writer website. It&#8217;s still a work in progress, but please feel free to check out my published short stories. More attractions coming soon!</p>