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Woodstock and Stone County: Fifty Years Ago Today
This morning Alexa informed me that today is the fiftieth anniversary of Woodstock. As Newsweek puts it: “The three-day festival was host to performers such as Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Ravi Shankar, Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead, and is considered the pinnacle of the “summer of love” culture of the late 1960s.” I find it…
Read MoreGive Me Your Tired…
The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus (1883) Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome;…
Read MoreWe Interrupt This Program for a Word from our Sponsor
I survived launch day! I’m delighted to say that yesterday A Family of Strangers went on sale. My husband bought freshly picked garden flowers at the farmer’s market to celebrate, and after a shopping trip for paint for our newly renovated bathroom (half-successful) and a bed frame with a simple headboard (not successful) we went…
Read MoreWhich Three Wrongs Would You Right?
By now many of you have had a chance to read One Mountain Away. If you haven’t, an important element of the novel involves Charlotte Hale, the principal character, who is looking back at her life. Charlotte isolates three things she did in the past that she wishes she could change, then she sets about…
Read MoreWriters on the Beach
I’m at the Novelist’s Inc. conference on St. Pete Beach this week, with old friends and new. I attended last year and learned more in a day than I’ve learned in all the previous conferences I’d ever attended. So back I went. Ever wonder what writer’s talk about when we’re together? (And I don’t mean…
Read MoreSunday Poetry: The Nothingness of Air
Welcome to Sunday Poetry. If this is your first visit you can read about the purpose and inspiration of my Sunday blogs here. Today’s poem, Song for Autumn by Mary Oliver seems perfect for mid-October, when the anticipation of winter is always with us, even on days when summer seems to be asserting itself, although briefly. The…
Read MoreSunday Poetry: Her Worried Summer Look
Welcome to Sunday Poetry. If this is your first visit you can read about the purpose and inspiration of my Sunday blogs here. Mother, Summer, I by Philip Larkin, linked here to The Writer’s Almanac online, is a “different” look at summer’s end. I’ve posted it this morning after a magnificent set of thunderstorms rolled in across…
Read MoreCHUsday: Old Blogs, Old Faithful Recipes
Summertime and the living is, well, BUSY!! I just taught two classes and need to focus on my next book, so this week, just like on your TV set, you’ll be getting re-runs. Today and Friday I’m featuring blogs from spring of 2009, when many of you weren’t reading here. In the spirit of CHUsday, here’s an old…
Read MoreGone Fishin’
I’ll be back by Sunday for Sunday Poetry . . . But breathing deeply here today. Hope you’re doing the same. Ah. . .
Read MoreSunday Poetry: Spring
Welcome to Sunday Poetry. We began this page in March, and if you didn’t join us then, don’t worry. This is a drop-in, drop-out adventure. You can read about the purpose and inspiration behind Sunday Poetry here. What’s your part? Just slow down a little and come along for the read–or sometimes, for the listen. If…
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