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One of the reasons I’ve so enjoyed writing the Shenandoah Album novels has been the chance to design quilts with words. Never mind how hard they are to actually construct. I can sew my quilts with sentences, choosing colors I love and imagining the result. Early on, of course, Leisure Arts blessed me with real quilts…
Read MoreDreaming Large
A story begins with a dream. Not necessarily the kind that involves pajamas and firm mattresses, but the kind we all have, that waking moment when our minds go spinning into outer space imagining what could be instead of what is.
Read MoreOn the Scent
Nemo and I take a morning walk almost every day. Nemo’s particularly fond of snow and ice, and Emilie is not. Despite this, we find ways to cope. A regional park not far from my house offers trails through the forest, as well as a wide road that’s plowed at the first sign of snow. On snowy…
Read MoreStill Crazy After All These Years
Are you participating in the block of the month project I’m doing with Pat Sloan? Are you considering participation? Or are you simply interested in what quilters do? Then read on. If not, there are lots of blogs below this one to entertain you while I show the block of the month participants how to…
Read MoreGuatemalan Rainbows
I promised one more blog on my Guatemalan trip. When I dream of my time there, I will always dream in color, because no country I’ve visited has more to share. There was color at the market place, where men and women arrived early, walking for miles on narrow mountain roads, wares on their heads and…
Read MoreFacing up to Facebook
Just a quickie, before we resume the Guatemalan travelogue. After serious urging by my publisher and the worry that I might be the only person left in the universe who is NOT on Facebook or other networking sites, the great and powerful wizard (Marna, my brave and true assistant) put up a page for me this…
Read MoreWeaving The Story of Women
I promised another side of Guatemala, one of the most multi-faceted places I’ve yet to visit, a country so visually extraordinary that there were few moments when somebody on our trip wasn’t snapping photos. Since only the men in my family seem to have the photography gene, my photos pale in comparison. Yet even I…
Read MoreIn Elisa’s Footsteps
Some years ago, in the middle of reading a loosely researched novel about New Orleans where “cable cars” zoomed down the “median” on St. Charles Avenue, I decided I would never write about a place I had not, at the very least, visited for an extended time. In New Orleans we had streetcars, and we…
Read MoreTravels with Emilie
I’ll confess that all I ever need to hear are the words “Do you want to go?” and I’m ready and willing, passport in hand. I have yet to take an international trip I wish I hadn’t attempted. I’m always excited. At first. Then the reality sets in. Exactly “why” did I think this was a…
Read MoreAn “Endless Chain” of Events
Through the magic of the Internet, and the help of Marna, my valued assistant, you’re viewing this post when I’m not even home to send it. Instead I’m in Guatemala, on a church-sponsored trip dedicated to learning about the struggles of the Mayan people after the political turmoil and yes, deaths of thousands. You may have…
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