Last month, I shared an amazing-for-me accomplishment: I had written a 1500-word short story--and very much enjoyed both the process and the product. Well, after that, I remembered that I had, a number of years ago, managed to write another short story that I was basically pleased with. So I dug it out of my files, and found that I was still happy ( Read more... )

This is my first Mother's Day without my mom, and it's been a hard one. Along with the sadness, though, there have been a great many happy memories--and some not entirely happy, but nonetheless comforting. Among these are the memories of Mom taking care of me during all my childhood illnesses and after my surgeries. This selection from my verse ( Read more... )

Yesterday I did something that, for me, is remarkable: I wrote a 1500-word short story. This probably seems like it's not a very big deal; I've written more than fifty books, after all. But my tendency--my proclivity, even--has been to write long. In my YA nonficition, I have always had to cut and cut and cut to fit the required word count. The 16, ( Read more... )

A few nights ago I read Terry Pratchett's delightful homage to Jane Austen in his latest, Snuff. As I've continued with the novel, I've come to a surprising realization: while Pride and Prejudice is still my favorite book, Jane Austen has become my second-favorite author, displaced by Pratchett--who in a great many ways is, after all, Austen's heir ( Read more... )

As I was coming home from a doctor's appointment and bout of errand running, a doe and her little spotted fawn crossed the road in front of me, less than a quarter mile from my house. They must have been on their way down to the little creek for a drink--it's certainly a thirsty day! Whatever the reason, though, it was an enchanting sight.

I love the quotation, "Blessed are those who can laught at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused," and I got to wondering who originally said it. So far as I can discover, nobody knows. But in the course of my search I found several other quotations about laughter (thanks to Read more... )

In honor of today's new moon and the coming spring and returning life, here is an old poem/hymn/prayer from Scotland (Carmina Gadelica #305 ( Read more... )

Today is the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, but the rights we won on that day thirty-eight years ago are under serious and sustained threat. I understand that many people in the anti-choice movement equate abortion with killing babies. But as they argue for a "culture of life," they seem to think only of a fetus's potential for life and to take no ( Read more... )

The other day I came across an interview with one of my favorite poets, A.E. Stallings, in which she says:

Rhyme is not an “ornament”-it is essential to a rhyming poem; without it, the poem would not have happened. That is, the poet does not “know” exactly what the poem is going to say and “translate” it into rhyming verse-or shouldn’t, in my book ( Read more... )

Over the last several years, turkey vultures have become an important symbolic creature for me--but I'd never done much research on them. Tonight, though, I happened upon the "Vulture Shamanism" webpage (http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/cienciareal/ ( Read more... )