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…breathe deeply and often…

  • The Invitation

    Mania is an expensive disease of unspeakable joy. I missed a day of school and missed professional development trauma training with personal trauma self-care/ My world rocked. I took a sick day, ended up taking two without a fever. Sickness doesn’t always come with high temperatures, sometimes it looks like notions and I took one…

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  • On the basic plot diagram, I’m midway on the rising action, maybe not in order. I’m happy with the lot I’ve written and marked completed. Spoiler alert, I wrote the climax already. I couldn’t help myself, it had to be done before I could write another word or make a cup of coffee. I’m juggling…

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  • My Wedding Dress

    I bought the perfect shoes to wear to my niece’s wedding. They were black leather with an inch and a half kitten heel. Just above the heel was a gold plate that made me glisten when I walked.  But I didn’t have a dress, so I  made one. I haven’t done any real sewing, not…

    Read more

  • I’ve been writing a novel with the working title, “In the Time of the Sonnets.” Without giving anything away at all, it’s got Shakespeare, giants, messengers, and kings in it. Of course there will be a witch here or there, but that’s beside the point. I’m heavy into the rising action and I’m already surprised…

    Read more

  • Van Gogh Epiphany

    When you start reading to your kids, you do it because you want them to learn to read. Then this happens. My first born read a  passage from a book about Vincent Van Gogh having a “cafe moment,” when Van Gogh’s experience, memory, talent, time, and place all converged into one glorious period of creativity…

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  • Former Student, Shawn…Cool Kid

    Shawn will always be one of my kids, even though he’s been a grown-assed man for at least thirty years now. I remember certain students for random reasons. Shawn was a twin, a brilliant one. Blonde, nice looking, a sweeter young man with manners you’d never meet. He was a creative writer, but he’d never… Read more

  • Multiples

    I don’t know what kind of magic is in a twin, but I know there’s more power in it than science can explain. Read more

  • Big Tears…

    He was matter of fact, but I was shaking in my boots. I didn’t see this day coming so soon. Read more

  • Lincoln’s Tophat: One Story

    Late at night, when Abe took off his hat, he crumbled like a cookie in a coffee cup of doubt. Read more

  • My Luxurious Mistake: For Bruce and Gail

    My trip ended too quickly, but before it did, I made a crucial but wonderful mistake. Read more

  • Fire

    I learned a long time ago to hide the things you want most, for those will be taken from you first. Read more

  • The Invitation

    Mania is an expensive disease of unspeakable joy. I missed a day of school and missed professional development trauma training with personal trauma self-care/ My world rocked. I took a sick day, ended up taking two without a fever. Sickness doesn’t always come with high temperatures, sometimes it looks like notions and I took one…

    Read more

  • On the basic plot diagram, I’m midway on the rising action, maybe not in order. I’m happy with the lot I’ve written and marked completed. Spoiler alert, I wrote the climax already. I couldn’t help myself, it had to be done before I could write another word or make a cup of coffee. I’m juggling…

    Read more

  • My Wedding Dress

    I bought the perfect shoes to wear to my niece’s wedding. They were black leather with an inch and a half kitten heel. Just above the heel was a gold plate that made me glisten when I walked.  But I didn’t have a dress, so I  made one. I haven’t done any real sewing, not…

    Read more

  • I’ve been writing a novel with the working title, “In the Time of the Sonnets.” Without giving anything away at all, it’s got Shakespeare, giants, messengers, and kings in it. Of course there will be a witch here or there, but that’s beside the point. I’m heavy into the rising action and I’m already surprised…

    Read more

  • Van Gogh Epiphany

    When you start reading to your kids, you do it because you want them to learn to read. Then this happens. My first born read a  passage from a book about Vincent Van Gogh having a “cafe moment,” when Van Gogh’s experience, memory, talent, time, and place all converged into one glorious period of creativity…

    Read more


  • Some thump

    “What the fuck? It’s three a.m. and my kitchen is as nasty now as it was when I fried chicken at noon today,” thought Tess. Something had woken her up out of a sound sleep. Some thump. “What the fuck?” She found the fuck passed out on the couch in the living room. How dare…

  • Meteor Shower

    The house went dead quiet and the den lights went out. The whirr of the refrigerator stopped. Norris knew something was wrong, same as I did. He asked for cream before the fridge got warm, he understood. I gave him treats instead. Usually these things flickered and came back on within seconds, then everything blinked,…

  • Tune up

    “One of the best parts of the concert is when the orchestra tunes up their instruments,” said Silas. “It hides the frenzy backstage, but hints at it when the squawks and squeaks get flung from the pit to the back of the house.”  “The more frenetic the tune up, the bigger the tribute the director,”…

  • Stella’s Walk

    Stella felt like she walked to the door of an open plane. She was terrified of heights, two miles was a long way to fall. Her walk was short today, less than fifty feet, and she didn’t have to take it, not really. Maybe she wouldn’t. She could turn around. Her friends that surrounded her…

  • Exerpt from Mark Twain’s War Prayer

    Mark Twain’s “War Prayer”. It’s not for everyone. It’s not sweet nor is it funny. Lots of folks don’t even like it. “Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth into battle — be Thou near them! With them — in spirit — we also go forth from the sweet peace…