The view from my covered back deck is lovely: a reasonably-sized treed lot in a quiet neighborhood northwest of Austin, Texas where we moved about a year ago to retire. The overhead fan tempers the 87-degree heat. Being outside in nature increases my ability to whack through the bramble bush in my head and allows […]
writing
January 13 – You Can Teach an Old Dog New Tricks
Every day in the winter, when I make the fire in our woodstove, I see it as a reminder that no matter how old, I can learn new skills. I could have identified other, perhaps more respected skills I acquired over the past years. Like becoming a writer in a language other than my native […]
July 27 – My Novel and the Polish Trolls
by Fran Hawthorne How could anyone object to my Twitter post on March 29, after my sister and I visited the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan to see an exhibit of long-hidden photos from the Lodz ghetto in Poland? I wrote: Henryk Ross’s chilling photos from inside the Lodz ghetto in Nazi #Poland at […]
May 25 – Lost Then Found
By Letty Watt With eyes still sleepy I turned on the computer this morning to write. No plans on the calendar for anything but ‘write.’ I thumbed through books looking for inspiration from which to write a new “Found” poem. My eyes widened with a page showing words that matched my soul today, then my […]
May 13 – Shaping Words
By Sara Etgen-Baker Before giving birth, Mother undoubtedly read child development books and baby-proofed her house. But no one could tell her what to anticipate. No one could tell her that the little girl she’d soon birth would come with a personality all her own and it would often run in direct opposition to her […]