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A Fairy Tale

Tell me a story.  A long one,  until I fall asleep. Hmm.  Dragons this time? No.  With a princess.  And the prince rescues her. And I'm the prince. Ah.  And who's the princess? I don't know her name.  Just tell me the story.  Not out of a book, out of your mouth. Once upon a …

Sailor’s Lament: A Sea Chantey

Sometimes you just want to ditch all the heavy stuff and play with words. And if you can't think of the right words, set your mind free from everything your English teacher told you and make stuff up. Dust off your fiddle and sing with me!   ‘Twixt the brothe and the brithey on the …

Talking to Your Monosyllabic Middle School Kid

  How was your day? Fine. What happened in school? Nothing. Do you have any homework? Nope. Sound familiar? Ten to one you are the proud parent of a middle school kid. But before you start venting about how unresponsive they are, consider how YOU would answer those questions after a long (and maybe awful) …

Why Good Stories Irritate Me

A writer reflects on the power of story.

Three Generations on the Road (Again)

For a city person, I’ve spent a lot of time on farms. My Vermont grandparents were farmers. Although “the farm” was not operating any more by the time I came along, they still had the barn where they boarded other people’s horses and a tractor to mow the lawn. The minute we got there after a four-hour …

Why I’ll Never Go Back to Albuquerque

Traveling is an adventure.  Traveling with kids redefines the term and borders on disaster.  I was traveling to California with a toddler and an infant.  Our connecting flight was in Albuquerque, and in those days the airlines didn’t transfer luggage.  I had to collect our suitcases and transport them a half mile down the terminal …

Inspiration

“So how did you get the idea for your book?” I was sitting next to an editor at a gathering of romance writers. Don’t even ask what I was doing there. Let’s say it was kind of a dare. Give me a medieval unicorn hunt any day, I used to say. A little fantasy, a bit …

It’s All in the Perspective

I was reading Psalm 139 and came upon a puzzling word in verse 5. It said, "You hem me in behind and before." Sounds so confining! The KJV was even more problematic: "You beset me!" What?! I felt like I was being attacked! So I looked it up. The archaic meaning of beset is "to …