Category Archives: religion

A Writer’s Notebook: a blank page

I’m regifting. Last year, the Writer’s Notebook fell on Christmas Eve, so I put on my sweatpants, poured a cup of hot cocoa, and begged off writing for the day. And I offered you, my readers, a blank page for a Notebook entry. This year, it’s the day before Christmas Eve, and I’m wearing jeans,Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: a blank page”

Last-minute holiday shopping: e-books!

Need to do some last-minute holiday shopping? Time is short, driving hurts the planet, holiday shoppers are crazy. Even you — shopping makes us all crazy. So go online and order an e-book! I’m not promoting Amazon’s Kindle, by the way (I don’t own any kind of e-reader), and if you can find other e-bookContinue reading “Last-minute holiday shopping: e-books!”

Merry freakin’ Christmas (don’t worry, we do Thanksgiving and New Year’s, too)

It’s been a good week for publications. On Monday, my story “Barefoot in the Guadalupe” appeared in Red Dirt Review, and the same day I got word that I’ll have a story in Scintilla sometime in the future. Then today, Jersey Devil Press‘s special Holiday Half-Issue my colleagues and I have been working on turned upContinue reading “Merry freakin’ Christmas (don’t worry, we do Thanksgiving and New Year’s, too)”

Photo blog 69

As I did last year, I’m using November’s photo blog posts to record some mood-setting pictures for my NaNoWriMo project. This year: the apocalypse, which involves a lot of ash. Hence these doctored, ashed-up photos of fog in Portland. (Today was eerily — and almost undrivably — foggy as well, so it felt like good timingContinue reading “Photo blog 69”

Writer’s Notebook: Holiday story

I’m sort of semi-cheating this week. I am working on an exercise, but the story I’m working on will eventually show up online as a story, so I’d rather keep it under wraps while I work on it. Still, I want to offer something along the same lines here, so behold, a quick excerpt fromContinue reading “Writer’s Notebook: Holiday story”

Small stone, Vol. 2, #20

Flag-themed fruit breakfast, bald eagle through a waterfall, grilled cheese and lemonade for lunch. Frisbee in the park surrounded by bikinied sunbathers and stocky, muscle-flexing softball players. A cramped bus ride, fireworks over the river downtown, freaks and drunks and street-preachers at the bus stop, tired crabby Americans all the way home. Exactly as itContinue reading “Small stone, Vol. 2, #20”

A Writer’s Notebook: an essay about Mom

My mother is retiring from 36 years of teaching, and to honor her, my sister, my brother, and I threw her a surprise party while I was down visiting during my PCA/ACA conference. My sister and my mom’s good friend Debbie, also a teacher, also organized a scrapbook for people to leave memories of myContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: an essay about Mom”