My Thoughts on Finishing Another First Draft
This past week, I finished the first draft of my current work-in-progress. I began this book in August 2025, just after publishing A Life of Joy. That novel was the last in a seven-book series centered on the same families. By then, I knew most of my characters well—I had spent more than fifteen years […]
The Little Engine That Could (Redux)
One of the presents I gave my three-year-old granddaughter for her sister’s birthday earlier this month was a copy of The Little Engine That Could. I happened upon a Little Golden Book edition that used the same illustrations as the copy I had when I was in preschool, which made me feel like I was […]
A Second Granddaughter’s First Birthday: More Icing on the Cake
As I’ve written before, when my daughter was born I thought she was the “icing on the cake” in my life. I already had a wonderful son. I would have been happy with another boy, but having a girl was “icing on the cake” because I wanted a daughter. That daughter grew up and now […]
Jumping Off with the Denny Party in 1851
I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been researching the Denny party, who traveled from Illinois to Oregon in 1851. Once there, most of the group decided to continue north to Puget Sound, where they would eventually found Seattle. I decided to share some of my research about the Denny party in monthly blog posts this year. […]
On Taxes, Accountants, and Staying Too Long at Anything
I wrote last week that I had planned a post about taxes. It would have been more appropriate on April 15, but as I wrote, a friend’s death trumped taxes. Still, taxes must be paid, so here is my post. For twelve years, I stayed with the same accountant. That sentence, on its own, sounds […]
Sedulous Writers Group: Another Requiem
Nothing is certain but death and taxes. I was going to write about taxes for this April 15 post, but death trumps taxes. A good friend and writing partner, Beth Lyon Barnett, died last week at the age of 97. Beth and I met in 2008 through the Kansas City Writers Group, which has been […]
70th Birthday on Easter: Reminiscences and Anticipation
Eleven years ago, I wrote about my birthday falling on Easter for the first time ever. This past weekend, it happened again—only the second time in my life that the two have coincided. And this time, it marked a milestone—I turned seventy. The week of my sixtieth birthday, I wrote this about being in my […]
A Visit to the Burke Museum
I recently had the opportunity to visit the Burke Museum on the University of Washington campus for the first time. A trip to this natural history museum has been on my list ever since we moved to Seattle, but the museum’s current special exhibit on Coast Salish weaving finally got me there. I thought the […]
Cascades Rapids on the Columbia River: Then and Now
My current work-in-progress is another historical novel set along the Oregon Trail, this one in 1851. A few weeks ago, I submitted a chapter to my critique group in which my characters were traveling down the Columbia River and nearly went over the Cascades Rapids. One of my critique partners asked me why I described […]
Spring? Winter? Who knows? It’s March
Spring is supposed to be the season when the weather turns milder—when the frigid temperatures of winter ease and the heat of summer hasn’t yet arrived. Instead, we sometimes get the worst of everything. The past week or two has been a good example of the tumultuous nature of spring weather. Across the Midwest and […]