Came across this poem that I wrote in May, 2020, near the beginning of the pandemic. I need a manicure. I need a pedicure. My hair’s not too bad. I trimmed some ends and pushed the sides behind my ears. My shoulders are sore from leaning over the computer. My quarantine world is getting smallerContinue reading “We All Need Sparkle”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
I Live in a Tree House
(Written April 2020) I live in a tree house. As the trees turn green in the spring, my forest closes in around me. Wraps me in branches filled with life. I plant flowers on the deck and the blood red of the begonias reminds me that life can be violent. Squirrels race across the deckContinue reading “I Live in a Tree House”
Not Just a Book Review
There are many reasons to choose a novel to read. It may be for purely entertainment, to immerse oneself in an historical time period or a journey into the future. I choose books for all of those reasons and more. I have been thinking recently about how novels can inform about issues of the day,Continue reading “Not Just a Book Review”
Review of The Black Witch by Laurie Forest
I am so overwhelmed by this book! Written for a YA audience, it sends a message of tolerance and understanding of the diverse people inhabiting Earthia. Elloran enters the university and is thrown into contact with the other races that inhabit their world, and whom she has been taught to hate, as they have beenContinue reading “Review of The Black Witch by Laurie Forest”
Can You Go Home Again?
Came across these photos and a poem I wrote after my visit back to my home town in Illinois in 2011. A bittersweet journey. A barn built to last one hundred years. Rusty now. But the only farm building left standing. Everything else is corn fields. Hay bales still crowd the loft, a place aContinue reading “Can You Go Home Again?”
Review of The Night Watchman
I don’t know where I picked this book up. Probably from my Little Free Library. I cannot praise and recommend it enough. Set in North Dakota in the early 1950s, it takes us into the lives of Native Americans struggling to survive and preserve their traditional beliefs and way of living, while fighting the U.S.Continue reading “Review of The Night Watchman”
Found a Poem
Came across a poem I wrote ten years ago. It was the year I went back with my brothers to the Illinois farm where we grew up. We have all traveled so far since then, but some elements provide continuity — like water. My Thoughts on Water The pond behind the barn where I caughtContinue reading “Found a Poem”
Bookstores and More Bookstores
In the infamous year of 2020, I had a plan to visit a new bookstore or library each month. January and February went great. In January, I participated in a book festival at McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro, North Carolina. In February, I was in Los Angeles visiting family and visited the Hawthorne Public Library andContinue reading “Bookstores and More Bookstores”
Traveling for Inspiration and Other Things
Most of my inspiration for writing comes when I travel. There is something about being in a new place where I can free my mind from everyday tasks that stimulates my imagination. The idea for my first novel, The Gate House, came about when my husband and I stayed in a bed and breakfast in Spalding,Continue reading “Traveling for Inspiration and Other Things”
And a Full Scottish Breakfast
Now that The Gate House is to be re-released, I have been thinking about how that book came to be. I had always enjoyed writing, and had a few small things published, but didn’t take myself seriously as a writer. And like many people, I had it in the back of my mind that IContinue reading “And a Full Scottish Breakfast”