Welcome to It's Not Too Late

Thoughts on desire, power, rage, & women ruling the world.

Are you filled with rage at how the world is going, especially for women? Ready to turn into a dragon or declare yourself a witch or chain yourself to a bank that keeps funding the fossil fuel fuckers?

Are you also exhausted because the story that things are going to get better and you realize: not so much. We’ve living in the turbulence and instability we’ve read about in history books. Not living through — because through suggests popping out the other side. There be no popping, poppet. We be in and there be monsters.

Thus the question becomes:

How do we live with rage and exhaustion without becoming ghosts who miss out on life?

How do we tend what we desire for the sake of enjoying our lives?

How do we respond when life tramples us or the people we love yet again? When we are hit with another storm, another fire, another loss of our rights?

How do we keep finding a way to keep going with pleasure and wonder and joy?

I love this picture of me. I took it at Mabel Dodge Luhan House where I have lead writing retreats forever. I was feeling the love and vibes of women writing their hearts out.

It’s tempting in dark times to take shelter in the idea it’s too late, especially as we age. And sometimes it IS too late — I’m never going to run a 5-minute mile, win a Pulitzer, or star in a major motion picture.

I am going to write a fucking great contemporary fantasy novel about a magic school for mid-life women where we learn to use desire and regret to control newly hatched magic. Our goal? To turn back the climate crisis and then, rule the world.

Writing fiction was young Jen’s dream and then young Jen somehow became a best-selling personal growth writer and well, three decades later, it’s not too late!

If you’re thinking it’s too late for _____ (fill in the blank), you may need someone to remind you maybe it’s not.

Who am I?

A writer is my answer at parties.

I wrote my first nationally best-selling book back in the dark ages (1992) that helped start the conversation about self-care - in a good way, not a GOOP way. It’s still in print! The Woman’s Comfort Book — dated but sweet. Having a best-selling book was better than having a struggling wine-dunked screenwriting career so I leaned in and wrote a bunch more personal growth books all through a feminist lens with a salting of “self-help often sucks.”

I also did lots of related stuff — keynotes, workshops, women’s retreats, SIRIUS radio show, national magazine column, podcasts, even a line of greeting cards. Cheeky ones.

I also started leading writing retreats 24 years ago for women struggling to own their voices and give themselves permission to write.

Want more? God knows why but here you go.

Me enjoying my favorite valley in Colorado. My arm looks massive.