I’ve been stuck a few times while writing my historical novels. My characters got into situations and I didn’t know how to get them out. When that happened, I brought in Mrs. Tuller. Mrs. Tuller is one of the main characters in my Oregon Trail books. She is the wife […]
Continue readingTag Archives: family
Writer’s Block, Mrs. Tuller, and Real Life
I’ve been stuck a few times while writing my historical novels. My characters got into situations and I didn’t know how to get them out. When that happened, I brought in Mrs. Tuller. Mrs. Tuller is one of the main characters in my Oregon Trail books. She is the wife […]
Continue readingPie Week, Pi Day, and Gooseberry Pie
Last week was Pie Week, I learned on National Public Radio. Why Pie Week in the U.S. is in July, I have no idea – I didn’t catch that on NPR. The British celebrated Pie Week March 5-11 this year, which at least is closer to Pi Day (March 14). […]
Continue readingArachnophobia and Love Revisited
The spiders are back already. After a mild winter and a hot spring and start to summer in the Midwest, they are creeping out of the attic earlier this year and bigger than ever. So I thought I would post my essay, Arachnophobia and Love, from my Family Recipe book. I hope […]
Continue readingWriting Memoir: Family Myth Defines Us, Unless We Define Ourselves
Earlier this month I attended the Kansas Authors Club, District 2, retreat at Lake Doniphan Conference & Retreat Center in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. (Yes, the Kansas authors were brave enough to cross the state line. The Border Wars have been over for a long, long time.) My favorite part of the […]
Continue readingDad, Me, and the New Capri
In the fall of 1972, a few months after I got my driver’s license, my father bought a sporty new Capri sedan. The Capri would be my mother’s car, replacing her small Ford Falcon station wagon, the car in which I had learned to drive. The Falcon was an easy […]
Continue readingMy Father-in-law and the Fireflies
Fireflies don’t live in the western United States, and I never encountered them growing up in Washington State. I didn’t see my first firefly until after I was married and moved to Missouri. We were in my in-laws’ backyard on a hot, humid evening in June. It might even have […]
Continue readingInternet Dependent
Last Sunday I worked all afternoon on the Internet through my laptop’s wireless connection. I uploaded a blogpost, responded to email, read newsletters, and checked the answers to The New York Times crossword puzzle. (I didn’t do very well on the puzzle this week.) About 5:00pm the Internet suddenly vanished. Poof! it […]
Continue readingMy Son Made Me Tweet
It’s my son’s fault I’m on Twitter. Or rather, you can blame it on @jamestweeting – his Twitter handle. He doesn’t call. He doesn’t write, not even emails. He’s rarely on Facebook. But he does tweet. A couple of years ago, James told me how to follow him on Twitter without […]
Continue readingFamily Night Casserole and Other Hashes
My mother and her friends exchanged recipes when I was growing up. From Dorothy Walker we got the wonderful Italian Spaghetti Sauce recipe featured in my book Family Recipe. From Nadine Spanner we got a decadent chocolate fudge cake with gooey frosting that is rich and moist and tastes like […]
Continue reading