My story, My Son Made Me Tweet, will appear in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Parenthood, which will be available on March 12, 2013. This book can be preordered through Amazon or Barnes & Noble. As the publisher’s description of this book says, parenthood is full of ups and downs, […]
Continue readingTag Archives: story
Writing Across Time
The Middlebury College Admissions Office uses interviews by alumni volunteers to supplement the online application process. As one of the volunteers, I’ve been talking to Middlebury applicants this month, and of course I have told them about my experiences at college. One of the things I talk to applicants about […]
Continue readingThe Story of Things: Aquamarine Earrings from My Grandmother
After every natural disaster, as people pick through the remains of their homes, we hear them tell reporters that what is important is that they and their families are safe. They are overwhelmed by their material losses, but they know their family’s survival is the most critical fact. And yet, […]
Continue readingAge Changes Our Perspective on Family Myths
I visited my parents over Christmas, and one day I walked past a picture in their home of my maternal grandfather (the grandfather who took many of the pictures I’ve featured on this blog). As a child, I thought of my grandfather as an old man. I saw him as […]
Continue readingPlaying Santa with Grandpa and Barbie
Only my father-in-law and I were at my in-laws’ house late on Christmas Eve 1984. All the Methodists in the family except Grandpa had gone to their midnight service, which began at 10:30pm. Early to bed, those Methodists. The three grandchildren – my nephew, niece, and son – were nestled […]
Continue readingSuper-Jesus and the Season of Mystery
My family is an eclectic mix of Catholics, Protestants, agnostics, and skeptics. Most of the time we muddle along just fine, but on occasion things get a little jumbled. I wasn’t present when this incident occurred, so let’s just say it’s a mix of fact and fiction. Much like the […]
Continue readingChristmas Traditions in the Late 1840s
Because the emigrants in my first Oregon Trail novel traveled between April and October, I didn’t have to write about their Christmas celebrations in that book. But the sequel covers a three-year time span, so as I work on this draft, I am learning about Christmas traditions in the late […]
Continue readingA Writer’s Journey, and the Value of Critique Groups
In my gratitude list, I mentioned the support of colleagues and mentors as something I am grateful for. When I decided to spend my time writing, finding fellow writers was a year-long journey. For the first several months, I just wrote. And read books about writing. I learned a lot […]
Continue readingHaunting Books: The Hunger Games Trilogy
In the past few months I’ve read several books that have continued to haunt me weeks after I turned the last page. So on Wednesdays in October (the traditional month for haunting), I’ll be posting about some of these books. None of the books I’ll write about is a horror […]
Continue readingFamily Pictures: Capturing History As the Mind Cannot
Both my dad and my mother’s father took lots of pictures over the years. As kids, my siblings and I were always smiling at the camera for my father or grandfather, and often both of them at the same time until my grandfather died. There were four standard poses for […]
Continue reading