“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…

River Ghosts by Merril D. Smith #bookreview #poetry

I always feel apprehensive when reviewing poetry, maybe more so than when I'm writing the poetry myself. Some time ago, I took an online writing course, and the instructor mentioned in passing that she liked writing poetry because you didn't need to explain poetry like you would explain a story or an essay. While that…

All the Words

Merril posted a random word list this morning. You can read it here: Merril's Random Word List When I saw the list of words, I started putting them together. Of course, adding in a few of my own. I believe I've managed to include all the words in the list. I don't know what you would…

What a Long, Strange Month It’s Been

Today is the last day of April and that alone puts me in a good mood. I've spent most of this month working on my current work-in-progress, my novel Clemency. I'm happy to say that I exceeded my goal of reading and revising 100,000 words. But I am not done. More needs to be added,…

Books, Books, Books! #MondayBlogs #amreading

What I'm reading now and what I recommend you read too.

Reaching for the Stars: Prose Poem? #MondayBlogs #yoga

I felt the staccato snap of each vertebrae in my spine as I lengthened and then twisted my torso in Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) and wondered how much longer I could keep looking up at the ceiling before I lost all feeling in my neck. The yogi urges me to take two more waves of breath…

Meet Guest Author, Luanne Castle…

Here’s a little backstory on how Luanne came around to creating her wonderful chapbook, Kin Types.

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

As a child, I loved reading about times past. Biographies of famous women like Lucrezia Borgia and Annie Oakley let me experience life in the periods in which they lived. Historical fiction lent a sense of adventure to realistic depictions of old England or the American colonial period. Time travel became my favorite fantasy.

But I never associated those times with my ancestors. The people who came before me were my three living grandparents, and the oldest person I knew, my grandfather’s aunt. I thought they had always been old.

As I became a teen, my grandfather began to tell me stories about our ancestors, and while they were interesting and I remembered them, I still didn’t put these relatives in my mind’s image of the Gilded Age and before. But then, when I was in college, my grandfather decided to show me his large collection of antique family portraits…

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A Confession and a Book Review: Kin Types by Luanne Castle #bookreview #poetry

First, the confession: I've been away in body as well as in mind. For two years my husband had been planning this road trip. For one year, it's been almost an obsession with him and then with me. And, into the mix, as if it weren't enough to be planning and obsessing over a road…

An Interview with Luanne Castle #MondayBlogs #poetry #flashnonfiction

Hello, everyone, I have a guest today: poet, family historian, and fellow cat hoarder lover, Luanne Castle. Many of you might already know Luanne from her blog, Writer Site, or her website, Luanne Castle, or perhaps you've already read her first book of poetry, Doll God, winner of the 2015 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award. I'm…

A Traditional Kind of Book Review: Bird Light by Elizabeth Cohen #MondayBlogs #bookreview #poetry

Poetry is like pornography: I know it when I see it. Or read it if you want to be picky. Or maybe it's an acquired taste, something you have to be trained to learn to like. Gin martinis might be an acquired taste, but in my case, I took to a gin martini the way…