I haven’t been a girly-girl since I had my first child. In fact, I don’t think I was ever issued a girly-girl card. Manicures and pedicures have never been a regular part of my life. At my last pedicure, the guy who was cleansing and lotioning my legs (is that even a thing at a …Read More

    I’m over at the Kill Zone Blog today, where I’ve posted a critique of  an anonymous author’s opening to a novel called The Last White Rose. I was shy about writing the critique because I don’t often do personal critiques, except for friends and the occasional student. But I had a lot of fun doing …Read More

  Every year I take many pictures of the gorgeous orange tiger lilies as good friend gave me years ago. This year I wondered what they would look like if they grew on the moon.             June 12th Words Journal:  77 words Long fiction: Revising Short fiction: 0 words Non-fiction: …Read More

    “I don’t have a favorite color, because I’m not a four-year-old.” Where did I hear that? A film, perhaps? As I recall, the delivery was pretty snarky, but it still made a huge impression on me. I felt so…liberated. Why do we have to have favorite things? Maybe someone first asked that question …Read More

  All emotions are pure which gather you and lift you up; that emotion is impure which seizes only one side of your being and so distorts you. —Rainer Maria Rilke Emotion may be truthful, but it’s not necessarily the best measure of reality. Wishing you lots of discernment and clarity this week…💜   June 10th Words …Read More

  Random Bits and Bobs Can this quiz guess where you’re from by your vocabulary? This has been around a while, but my family is obsessed with this NYT Quiz. My three most significant cities were Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky, and Little Rock, Arkansas. The Kentucky part is dead-on for me. Don’t know where the …Read More

Thursday started early, and is ending a bit late. Long days make me grouchy, even when they end with my favorite local pizza restaurant, and chocolate soft serve from Dairy Queen. (Available ONLY on Thursday, which I don’t quite understand.) The electrician arrived at 7:00 a.m. to repair some squirrel-chewed wires and a bad socket. …Read More

    If you hang out with me on social media, i.e. Facebook or Instagram, you know Tuesday afternoon and much of Wednesday was spent with stranger dogs. Strangers, as in not my dogs. When Walt and Charlie (I only found out their names later) first showed up, I tried to chase them out of the yard. …Read More

  Usually in the months between finishing one novel and beginning a new one, I write at least one short story, and some non-fiction. It feels important to me to flex my writing muscles in other genres and forms. (But don’t expect any poems, okay? It’s for your own safety.) This spring I wrote a short …Read More

Welcome back to the garden. More perennials are blooming, plus most of the annuals. The endless days of sunshine have made a real difference. Though both the garden and I could do without the 86 degree June heat. I find new flowers, new life inspiring, don’t you?                 Verdigris …Read More