Winter Park 2010: A Reflection on Life and Time
As I browsed through my digital photographs looking for something to write about, I came across a folder of pictures I took on a ski trip to Winter Park, Colorado, in 2010. The trip actually took place in late March 2010, during my daughter’s last spring break in law school. But a ski trip is […]
My Self-Image Through Rose-Colored Glasses
I recently got new eyeglasses. I’ve needed corrective lenses since I was eight and a half, so this was not a new experience for me. But every time I get new frames, my image of myself changes. My first glasses were blue cat-eyes. I was assured they were very cute. And I was so happy […]
My Work-in-Progress: Diving into My Plot with Scrivener and Aeon Timeline
I am starting the New Year with a new resolve to finish my novel. I have confronted the timeline issue that has plagued me for the last couple of months. I moved the starting point of the story a month earlier, and I have finally plugged the hole which that change created. My timeline now […]
The Pause Between Years
I usually post about Oregon history during the last week of the month, but this week I am feeling the pause between years. The week between Christmas and New Year’s has always felt to me like time to heave a big sigh and relax, to sit in the moment suspended between past and future. Most […]
Perfect Christmases
When I think of my childhood Christmases, I think of going to my grandparents’ home in Klamath Falls, Oregon. They moved out of that house when I was six or seven, and some of my earliest Christmases were spent at my home rather than traveling to my grandparents’ house. So I can’t have spent more […]
The Brass Bucket: A Family Heirloom
Ever since I have known him (46 years now), my husband has kept his magazines in a brass bucket. This bucket was something he acquired from his great-aunt. Why she had it, I do not know. She lived on a farm for many years, a farm that has been in the family for over 100 […]
Of Books & Nooks Offers a Holiday Giveaway
The Of Books and Nooks authors—all of whom are Kansas City area authors—are teaming up to bring readers an 8-book holiday giveaway. I am always impressed by the level of writing talent in Kansas City, and I am happy to be included in this group. There is something in this collection that will appeal to […]
Researching an Oregon Parsonage
Many of the scenes in my current work-in-progress take place in a Methodist parsonage in Albany, Oregon. The minister, his wife, and their young daughter live there in 1867. Albany in 1867 was a small town, though it was the county seat of Linn County, Oregon. I envisioned a small parsonage—a few rooms on the […]
My Gratitude Journal This Thanksgiving
I’ve written before about the journal I have kept for the past twenty years. About two years ago, sometime after the pandemic started, I decided to add a paragraph each day listing things I was grateful for. I’d read about the healing powers of keeping a gratitude journal, and this was my nod to the […]
A Story That’s Fun To Tell: My Mother and the Ballard Locks
When my parents lived in Bellevue, Washington, in the 1980s, they owned a small cabin cruiser. I don’t recall much about the boat, and I never went out in it. They mostly sailed on Lake Washington, but occasionally, then took it into Puget Sound and up into the San Juan Islands. To get from Lake […]