HEATHER KING

Welcome! You’ll find here my books, a weekly arts and culture column and a decade’s worth of blog posts.

I also offer writing workshops, coaching and manuscript editing, and talks on a variety of subjects–with an overall thrust toward the promotion of the artistic vocation.

“Desire lines” are the names given by urban planners to what happens when one person’s impulsive shortcut encourages others to follow, creating informal, unmapped channels through a city.

What if, together, we could begin to make new desire lines—for ourselves, for the world?

BOOKS

Seashell pink hibiscus with sunlight streaming through from the west. (Bronson) Canyon Boulevard, Hollywood. When I first moved to LA in January, 1990, from New England, hibiscus in winter seemed like answers to a prayer I didn't even know had been beating in my heart. They still do.

HIRAETH

11/27/2022 7 Comments

” ‘Hiraeth’ is a Welsh word that has no direct English translation. The University of…

THE ANXIETY OF THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES

11/25/2022 2 Comments

God doesn’t will us to suffer anxiety but, given the human condition and the order…

"Christ Crowned with Thorns," Horace Pippin, 1938. On the Solemnity of Christ, the King of the Universe, who is so often either spat upon-or ignored.

CROWN HIM WITH MANY CROWNS

11/20/2022 22 Comments

Like Jesus nailed to the Cross, Dennis couldn’t get away from the many people who…

formerly abandoned grist mill with stone foundation and weathered shingles, located in Freedom, Maine, and now housing the world-famous restaurant The Lost Kitchen. Owner/chef Erin French is a Freedom native with no professional training and a ton of talent and heart.

FINDING FREEDOM AT THE LOST KITCHEN

11/18/2022 1 Comment

“Finding Freedom” is the story of how Erin French picked herself up by the…

HILMA AF KLINT'S "PRIMORDIAL CHAOS, NO. 6," 1906-07. Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) "was a Swedish artist and mystic whose paintings are considered among the first abstract works known in Western art history. A considerable body of her work predates the first purely abstract compositions by Kandinsky, Malevich and Mondrian.” [wiki] The painting is a reflection of my inner state after a long home-invasion siege by a recalcitrant ground squirrel.

CALLED TO GIVE UP

11/14/2022 14 Comments

The trap sat there untouched for days. This morning I went out and found that…

St. Maximilian Kolbe (1894-1941), the Polish priest who offered himself in place of a condemned inmate with a wife and children, to die in his place at Auschwitz. Taken in 1939, two years before his death.

ST. MAXIMILIAN KOLBE: LOVE WITHOUT LIMITS

11/11/2022 6 Comments

“Those eyes of his were always strangely penetrating. The SS men couldn’t stand his glance,…

WRITING WORKSHOPS

My eight-week writing workshops–the next one runs from August 7 through September 25, 2021!–combine instruction, writing prompts, in-class critique/discussion and an atmosphere of intense welcome, encouragement and support.

MENTORING/EDITING

With decades’ worth of experience, several award-winning memoirs, and the #1 regular arts and culture column in the country two years running from the Catholic Press Association, I can help you envision, shape, write, revise and edit your essay, short story, memoir, novel, poetry collection or manuscript.

SPEAKING

I’ve given talks across the country and here in LA on conversion, recovery from addiction, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, everyday mysticism, prayer, and the nobility of artistic vocation.