Last week, I “attended” the Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) Novel Retreat, an event that was supposed to be held on campus but like so many summer events became an online retreat via Zoom. I’m better on Zoom than I am in real life. Many complain about the platform’s impersonality, and I certainly understand … Continue reading Zoom Bloom
O suns and skies and flowers of June, Count all your boasts together, Love loveth best of all the year October's bright blue weather. --Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885) In the early third of this month comes three loaded dates for me. I love October. I love Halloween. But each year I have this snag to … Continue reading Reclaiming October
Spring is upon us at last! I write from the chair next to the window in my second story office from which I can see the apple tree beginning to blossom. In the side yard near my garden is a subspecies of apple that is not crab apple but blooms hot pink like a crab … Continue reading Pleasant Fifty-Year-Old Female
clarity: n. 1. the quality of being easy to see or hear; sharpness of image or sound. 2. the quality of of coherence and intelligibility For seven weeks now, we've been socked in by smoke from wildfires. The eerie, orange-white light is surreal, intensifying my sense that modern life has become a science fiction novel. … Continue reading Clarity
You ever had one of those years, the sort that turns everything upside down? Mornings you can't really lay in bed, even on a Sunday, because your mind is going to find its way down the drain-of-no-return, and soon you'll be thinking about all your carefully laid plans, the trips you meant to take, where … Continue reading Things That Make Sense
My grandmother believed that all children like to be scared, at least a little. In Sunday school, elementary school, even as a babysitter, she taught kids her favorite rhyme: Here’s a candle to light you to bed here’s a chopper to chop off your head! Not all parents endorsed her ideas about kids and fear, … Continue reading The Great Grimpen Mire
Readers! About two months ago, I took a look at my inventory. The last essay I had published was in 2007, on literarymama.com. I had a poem published in Pearl magazine out of Berkeley in 2008; that magazine has since shut it doors. This is a peril of the long form: not a lot of … Continue reading Shameless Self Promotion: Part l
The novel I'm reading is set in Montana in the eighties. Since I'm writing a book set in Montana, I thought I'd better take a look at what's out there in the way of depicting modern Montana. This one raised my hopes because it was new, it was set in the last 30 years, it … Continue reading Country Life and the Western Writer
The number 45 is: Half way to ninety. Cannot be divided in two. Comprised of two hyphenated F-words. Not very sexy. At this age, the typical adult needs a reading glasses magnification of 1.75. Common mild skin issues include: brittle nails, Poikiloderma (aka "redneck"), and seborrhoeic keratoses (once known as "senile warts"). Foot pain is … Continue reading The Second Half: A Reckoning
On the trail today I met two men well into their sixties, one with a collie puppy on a leash, the other with a walking stick, a hat and a rather frozen grin. "Warren Wilson College?" asked the one with the leash, gesturing to my shirt. "Where's that?" North Carolina, I told him. "Well! you're … Continue reading Residency Notes: the third time around