Happy New Year, everyone!
What say we make this the year we all successfully publish our lovely books? Okay?
Not to get all nostalgic on you, but this has been an amazing past year. My manuscript, All The Dancing Birds, was awarded finalist honors by the Pacific Northwest Writers Association. Writing this inside-out view [...]

Have I mentioned my dear husband lately? You know, the one who brings me my morning paper and a nice skinny latte, no foam, no sugary stuff — without being asked? That Guy? (He does dishes, too, by the way.) Well, that Grand Guy gave me Dragon Naturally Speaking for Christmas. He thought it might [...]

Okay, everyone — hold up your glasses. I’d like to make a toast. I know it’s not New Year’s Eve yet, but you can’t blame a girl for getting a jump on things. I can’t let this perfectly good glass of wine go to waste without toasting something … or someone.
So, let’s toast all us [...]

How many people decide to have their kitchen remodeled four days before Christmas? Not many, I’d wager. For one thing, it puts a cramp in the annual cookie baking extravaganza when the oven is unplugged and the refrigerator is inaccessible. Not to mention what it does in the gracious-to-guests category when they’re greeted at the [...]

As a child, I was sick every Christmas. Every Christmas! I had rheumatic fever. Scarlet fever — twice. Chicken pox. Measles. Pneumonia. The sniffles. The creeping crud. You name it, I got it.
Every Christmas I was sick.
Until I met my husband. Maybe I was just trying to show off for him. Maybe I was simply [...]

It’s been five days since I’ve had the courage to pull up to my computer. Five days since I heard the news that things were getting close. Very close. Then … three days now of swallowing hard, wiping tears, finding my bearings once more in a world without my friend, Pat.
Friday night, this dear friend [...]

I used to be the silent suffering type. Thirteen years ago, I recovered from brain surgery on nothing more than Extra Strength Tylenol four times a day. I dragged myself from a wheelchair and flopped around in a freezing swimming pool, hoping perhaps one over-achieving brain cell might like to try its hand at walking. [...]

Yesterday I wrote of my father. Today’s thoughts are of mom.
She was the one in the apron. The one who held us together with a spoon and a spatula. Mother knew how to knead. Her breads were beyond compare. Her cookies were devine. I know she tried to teach me culinary arts. Unfortunately, my [...]

My father was an artist. A commercial advertising artist. I picture him often, standing at his drawing board, a pencil behind his ear, his teeth holding another pencil, while he deftly moved a third pencil over a large sheet of paper. He always had at the ready a putty eraser, but he rarely needed to [...]

Okay, here’s the thing. The scar from my surgery is clinging to my wrist bone like an alien face-hugger. It won’t let go! So, I’m in physical therapy three times a week, with self-manipulation of my poor, beleaguered wrist three times a day.
So what does a writer do when she can’t do anything? She has [...]