Sticking to Goals as a Writer (and Not)
I had a boss once who always knew what percent of the year had already passed – it was roughly 2% per week, a little more than 8% each month. He would cite the percentage down to a fraction. I’ve come to adopt that attitude, as I watch time and life slip through my hourglass. […]
How Do You Read? Ebook or Paper?
I have always read avidly, as much as my time permitted. Libraries are invaluable, because I couldn’t afford my reading habit without them. My husband gave me a Nook Color e-reader for Christmas 2010. I was skeptical when I opened the box. I wasn’t sure I wanted to switch to ebooks. But overnight, I was […]
Flat Stanley Visits Kansas City
My niece, a second-grader in a Seattle suburb, assigned me homework. She wanted me to take Flat Stanley to landmarks in Kansas City, to help her class learn geography. For those of you who are not familiar with Flat Stanley, he began as a character, Stanley Lambchop, in a 1964 children’s book by Jeff Brown. […]
Poetry and Childhood Memories: Plume, by Kathleen Flenniken
I received Plume, a book of poems by Kathleen Flenniken, from my daughter, who bought it for me because the author grew up in Richland, Washington, as I did. The poems in Plume are about Ms. Flenniken’s childhood in Richland and her work experience at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, where she spent a few years […]
My Nook HD and Flipboard (My New Favorite App)
I wrote recently about my computer travails, which required me to purchase a new desktop computer and a laptop within just a few weeks of each other. I mentioned I also got a new e-reader – a Nook HD to replace my aging Nook Color. That has been a happier transition. I dropped my Nook […]
A Writer’s Journey, and the Value of Critique Groups
In my gratitude list, I mentioned the support of colleagues and mentors as something I am grateful for. When I decided to spend my time writing, finding fellow writers was a year-long journey. For the first several months, I just wrote. And read books about writing. I learned a lot about novel techniques, and I […]
Family Read Aloud Month: Building a Community of Readers in Kansas City
As I wrote recently, reading has always been very important to me. I didn’t know when I wrote my post two weeks ago about my mother reading to me that November is Family Read Aloud Month, nor that the Kansas City Public Library is working with Mayor Sly James on an initiative called Turn the Page Kansas City, […]
Haunting Book: Turn of Mind, by Alice LaPlante
The last book in my October series of haunting books is Turn of Mind, by Alice LaPlante. I would not have known about this book, except that it was a Stanford Alumni Association Book Salon choice for September 2012. When I learned Turn of Mind was the September selection, I knew I had to read […]
Haunting Book: Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
I’m turning now from haunting books that deal with violence and man’s inhumanity to man on a global level (The Hunger Games trilogy, The Sandcastle Girls, and Unbroken) to a novel that haunts because of the violence and inhumanity within a family. Gone Girl, a bestselling novel by Gillian Flynn, focuses on a most unfortunate […]
Memories: In Song and Words
We don’t know what will suddenly bring a dormant memory to consciousness. For Proust, it was the taste of madeleines. For me, it was a hymn sung in church. “Whatsoever you do” was the song sung after communion at Mass a couple of weeks ago. “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers . […]