I’ve been filling up notebooks writing like crazy for over forty years. A lot of it was venting and whining—or to be kinder to myself, I’ll call it “therapeutic.” I am happy to brag that over the years I’ve had several poems published, usually in local newsletters and chapbooks, but twice in nationally distributed anthologies. … Continue reading Let’s Go!
Category: Writing
Please Join Our Email List!
Dear Family, Friends, and Fellow Writers, I spent 2014 working like crazy to revise and edit my first four novels. 2015 will be my year to promote and publish my writing—and then promote it some more. Toward that end, I am asking all of you to sign up for my email list. This list serves … Continue reading Please Join Our Email List!
Becoming A Novelist (featuring a salute to Nanowrimo)
I took a leave of absence from my teaching gig to write my first novel. At the time I was burnt out on teaching, but at least when I was teaching I knew what I was doing. I didn’t know how to write a novel, but I started writing anyway. It took about five months … Continue reading Becoming A Novelist (featuring a salute to Nanowrimo)
Good Summer Reads
Marketers would have us believe that summer is the time for books that are light and frothy, suitable for beach or poolside reading. But since I generally didn’t work for eight to ten weeks every summer I often used that time to tackle some massive classic. Last summer I pushed myself through Doris Lessings’ The … Continue reading Good Summer Reads
Delta Breeze
After a week where the temperature topped 105 degrees each day with little cooling at night, we are all so grateful to welcome back the Delta Breeze, the delightful wind that courses up from San Francisco Bay along the Sacramento River to grace our valley with a natural air conditioner on blessed summer evenings. I … Continue reading Delta Breeze
Happy Birthday USA!
I pledge allegiance to this sand and gravel road that runs between the river and my house, clumps of California poppies rangy stalks of fragrant fennel and burgeoning fig trees that grow wild on the river bank. I pledge allegiance to the rhythm of the spoken word to cheap pens and notebooks that welcome … Continue reading Happy Birthday USA!
Tending My Muse
It’s been a year now since I’ve retired from teaching, and I’m sure it will surprise no one when I say retirement is GREAT! Every now and then a friend approaching retirement age will ask, “Do you ever get bored?” My response to that is an unqualified “Heck no!” Sometimes someone will counter with, “Yes, … Continue reading Tending My Muse
Writing the Amherst Way
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MAY 17, 2013 A few weeks ago I had the privilege of writing in a workshop with Pat Schneider, the author of Writing Alone and with Others, and the recently released How the Light Gets In: Writing as a Spiritual Practice. Pat developed a workshop method of writing together in community, which came … Continue reading Writing the Amherst Way
The Next Big Thing
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED APRIL 26, 2013 Thanks to my friend June Gillam for “tagging” me to promote The Next Big Thing! In June’s latest blog post she wrote about her upcoming thriller, House of Dads. http://junegillam.com/2013/04/24/the-next-big-thing-blog-tag/ Now it’s my turn to tell you all about my novel. What is the title of your book? Welcome Stranger … Continue reading The Next Big Thing
The Flint Girls Go To A Fire
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED APRIL 26, 2013 One more poem as we near the end of National Poetry Month. I wrote this rather prosey poem about my Mother and her family twenty-something years ago. I just came across it again, and decided to publish it here. I think it's a fun story--at least that was always my … Continue reading The Flint Girls Go To A Fire
