Her Favorite Song Was “My Way”

In less than six months, I've lost both of my sisters. On July 1, 2022, my sister Shirley passed. And now, my sister Charlotte. Charlotte passed away on November 25, 2022. In the last few weeks, she went from being full of energy and living independently to needing oxygen 24/7 and home health services. Instead…

Lens Artists Challenge #225: Wildlife Close to Home

This week, Anne leads the photo challenge with “Wildlife Close to Home”: “Stop. Look. Listen. Doing those three things will help you discover the abundance of wildlife you have nearby.” I stop, look, and listen a lot on my walks in the hood and even in my own backyard.  You might recall that my husband…

What’s Going On?

Not much and yet maybe too much. A couple of months ago I signed up for SmokeLong Fitness Community Workshop. It's all flash, all the time. I've since learned that I can write to prompts quite happily if I'm given an example of a response. My creative battery is apparently sparked by other people's creativity. We're…

Veterans Day 2022 #VeteransDay

(A reprint of a previous post.) To honor my many family members who have served in the military ... To honor my dear surrogate grandfather, Ted Albers (RIP), who was drafted into the Army at the age of 34, captured at the Battle of the Bulge, and held as a POW under the end of…

“The Ease of Wind-Filled Wings”: A Review of Luanne Castle’s Rooted and Winged #poetry #bookreview

I always review a book of poetry with some anxiety and exhilaration; anxiety because poetry is in the eye (ear/mind) of the beholder, and exhilaration because poetry is in the eye (ear/mind) of the beholder. I'd argue that I don't know what "good" poetry is, only that if I like it, I like it. That's…

A Thrilling Ride as Well as a Short Course in Psychopathology #bookreview

Recently I was the lucky recipient of a free AUDIO version of Fatal Rounds, Carrie Rubin's latest novel. Y'all know how much I enjoy audiobooks. Although I disdain multitasking, audiobooks are what get me through hours of housecleaning, walking, and knitting. So when I learned there was a raffle for a free audiobook, I got…

What Day Is It? And Does It Matter?

I thought Wednesday was Saturday but I knew Thursday was Thursday and, so far, I'm confident that today is Friday (and my calendar says so too). Tomorrow should be Saturday and I just hope I don't think it's Wednesday because I have a couple of appointments and getting my days wrong would really screw things…

Lens-Artists Challenge #211: What’s your photographic groove?

Anne Sandler from Slow Shutter Speed leads this week's photography challenge with “what’s your photographic groove?” What a great question! At heart, I'm a minimalist ... although if you saw my bedroom/workroom, such a thought would have you laughing your arse off. By minimalist, I mean I don't like having a lot of gear, which is…

August’s freebie: Yesterday Road

Yesterday Road is my all-time favorite novel by Kevin Brennan. This week the Kindle version is free. Here’s a snippet of the review I wrote: “Yesterday Road is a humorous, poignant, action-filled, meditative literary novel. To describe it with these adjectives makes me feel like I’m contradicting myself, but I’m not. Brennan has managed to write a novel that is as much a page-turner as a thoughtful exposition on memory.” You can read the whole review at https://1writeway.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/a-traditional-kind-of-book-review-yesterday-road/. But I’d prefer it if you read the novel itself. Click here.

WHAT THE HELL

Time for another Summer Reading freebie, and this month it’s my second novel (and first indie), Yesterday Road.

I have a special place in my heart for this book because it brings together three of my favorite characters: Jack Peckham, the octogenarian who just wants to find his way home; Ida Pevely, the diner waitress with a heart of gold who’s called into service to help two wayward innocents; and Joe Easterday, a young man with Down syndrome on the adventure of his life. I really came to love all these guys in the writing of this one.

Here’s the blurb, in case you’ve forgotten:

In this “coming-of-old-age” tale, Jack Peckham finds himself on a journey into his distant past, helped along the way by Joe Easterday, a young man with Down syndrome, and Ida Pevely, a middle-aged waitress with her own mountain of regrets. Jack has…

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The Birthday Card I Will Never Send

August 2 is my sister Shirley's birthday. She would have been 76 today. Here's the birthday card I bought for her a couple of months ago. I think she would have gotten a kick out of it.  During the viewing and funeral in early July, many people came up to me and said I looked…