Because I once or twice contributed to a Go Fund Me campaign, I occasionally get announcements of success stories. This is one of them that fits nicely within the monthly WATWB post. Gunnar was hit by a truck on February 16th of 2014. . . On that cold winter day in a rural Wisconsin vet […]
Another one of those phrases that originated from my real home life generated this snippet. Looks like something that could be a short story in the third collection (a few years out; mysteries) after editing and development. Alice had hidden the spoon as she always did. Her special spoon. Only she could use it. For […]
A twofer–#WATWB and Spring “Care granted to the sick, welcome offered to the banished, forgiveness itself are worth nothing without a smile enlightening the deed.” So says Antoine de Saint-Exupery in Letter to a Hostage. Maria Popova has a wonderful piece about the short-lived author (1900-1944) of The Little Prince in her Brain Pickings site. While a […]
It’s a good thing to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Sometimes you have no other choice. She can’t wear hers at all for another few weeks. The foot surgery March 20th ensures that. So I’m relearning tasks we used to share when we both worked and had kids at home. Laundry Grocery shopping Cooking–up […]
It’s an early spring for plants, birds and more. A cold and dreary winter in southwestern New Mexico has yielded to warmer weather and growing things. The first agave began popping up on a precarious ledge in late March. This photo is from the 27th. Despite its challenged base, it will be large–probably fifteen feet […]
Observations make the scene. Especially when the story is not coming. We remark on this one often enough. So today it is a snippet. Transfixed. Obsessed somewhat we think. Limbs and needles moving in the breeze. Sun and shadows vie for his attention. What does he see that we don’t? Another lifetime, perhaps. He might […]
There once was a post by D.G. Kaye about “trainstorming,”–beginning a new sentence with the first word of the last. I did it before. This is a little more. You’ll see. I didn’t keep the prompts from last week’s Gila Writer’s Group but I believe that I took no more than a word but at […]
Here is this month’s post celebrating good news stories from people around the world. People doing good for no other reason than it’s the right thing to do. This month, I found a reprint on the Good Housekeeping website of an LA Times story about a foster parent. A serial foster parent if you will. […]
The memory and the imagination–tools in a writer’s bin. A story of devolution that began with a travel piece on Views from Eagle Peak. Modified a bit–with more fiction and less fact. Some remains. Writing from life some call it. I looked down at the dull gray boulders, thirty-feet below the clear water of Lake […]
The Vampire Bodhisattva After a brief time away in a sunny and warm Puerto Vallarta, it’s back to writing. This story has been sitting around for a few years. I hesitated to include it in the collection coming late this fall. Then I thought, ¿por qué no? Did I mention the Mexican beach trip? Anyway, […]