Brainstorming 2014: Four Days of Ideas and Friendship
Brainstorming 2014! My brainstorming buddies just drove away in a car overflowing with luggage and ideas for new books. Topping this off? Characters and scenes for works already in progress. Now comes the work of putting the ideas to good use, weeding or tossing them, whichever proves to be most valuable. Serena Miller, Casey Daniels/Kylie Logan, and…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: How To Make Your Life Better
How To Make Your Life Better OK, I know how evil email can be… it is addictive and takes you away from family and friends and away from all the beauty and love in the world. Bad email. But I just read this great blog by Eric Barker (yes, it was emailed to me) on…
Read MoreFiction Friday: Domestic Violence and No River Too Wide
While I announced last week that Fiction Friday was about to go on hiatus, today I’m back to share some excerpts about domestic violence from No River Too Wide. This week most people were stunned to see an elevator video of pro football Ray Rice, a Baltimore Ravens running back, assaulting his girlfriend Janay Palmer…
Read MoreList for Leaving: Are You Ready to Go?
I’ve decided there are two kinds of people, those who are always ready to move on to the next experience, and those who hang on until they’ve squeezed every drop of happiness from the last one. Of course there are also those hovering somewhere in the middle. Which means there are really, oh seven billion plus…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Hospital Window
Hospital Window http://youtu.be/v5XyPryLkSw “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.” -Helen Keller I can’t help it, I cry every time I see this Hospital Window video. This brief story encapsulates what it means to have a friend and to be a friend. So often we take our…
Read MoreFiction Friday: Who Knows Where the Time Goes
Across the morning sky, all the birds are leaving . . . Friday came and went and I realized at the end of the day that as my summer winds down and I prepare for the journey south my writing has taken precedence over my Fiction Friday posts. Like the geese flying overhead every day,…
Read MorePleasures of Small Museums
What is it about small museums that makes them so special? Now that the official season is over here, Michael and I ventured into Jamestown, New York yesterday with friends to do a little sightseeing before we head back to Florida. Jamestown is a lovely little city, once a furniture manufacturing capital and now, like many northern…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: “Flowers always make people better…”
FLOWERS ALWAYS MAKE PEOPLE BETTER “Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.” – Luther Burbank As summer slips into the beginnings of fall here in Chautauqua, New York, I find myself saying goodbye to the beautiful flowers that have given me and so many others…
Read MoreFiction Friday: Book Collections
Welcome to Fiction Friday. On Tuesday I showed you a few of the “prized possessions” which now adorn our summer cottage. I didn’t have room there to show you two “collections” we’ve added to our walls, so I’m adding them here. The first are mismatched plates I couldn’t bear to throw away, and the second a wonderful…
Read MoreThese Are a Few of My Favorite Things
Confession time. Are you ready? What favorite things do you have in boxes in your attic, basement or hall closet that you just can’t let go of? How many times have you moved them? I’ll confess to being something of a hoarder. I tend to vest objects with such sentiment that it’s hard to toss…
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