About
I live in San Jose with my husband and our highly anxious dog. Our three sons are out in the world — Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York — doing things that still surprise me.
Flying fish shirt. It's difficult to lose me in the airport.
I make things. Grocery lists, mental lists — I make an effort. I make art (like this self-portrait). I make boundaries and plans. I write, and I love to loiter and eavesdrop in hotel lobbies. I manage a busy vacation rental and make sure the beloved blanket left behind gets returned and the kitchen is in order. My husband tends to the bamboo and the pickleball lines. I enjoy avocados and a glass of pinot noir once in a while. Not together.
When I got a diary at age ten, I wrote on the first page: "I will try to tell the truth." I'm still trying. I'm always looking for the truth in what I see and how I feel. And if I've found it, I try to find a little humor or whimsy too.
I write a monthly newsletter — things that delight me, arrest my attention, or interest me in some way that I want to share. No advertisements, no fake news, no additives or preservatives.
Wild Writing has enabled me to show up to the page — and to life — with more truth, more vulnerability, and a liberating sense of self-acceptance. I'd been looking for a writing group like this for years and couldn't find one where I live. So I trained to teach it myself.
I've written two books — collections of short pieces about raising three boys. Those years deserved to be written down. I'm currently working on a memoir about friendship, loss, a kidney, and survival. It's the hardest thing I've written and probably the truest.
If I Knew I Was Going to Have Three Boys, I Would Have Paid More Attention in PE, Volume 1 →
If I Knew I Was Going to Have Three Boys, I Would Have Paid More Attention in PE, Volume 2 →
Say hello: amber@ambershawauthor.com