Finding Red Dirt…part two
It was 1934. My great-grandmother, Beatrice Rains, was 43 years old. She spent the summer in Montevallo, at the Alabama College for Women, as it was called then, studying creative writing. She left her 13-year old twins home with their father. I arrive in Montevallo at lunchtime, chasing her ghost. I park in the small [...]
Savannah Book Festival
My experiences at the Savannah Book Festival relived this morning thanks to writing about them for Shelf Awareness. Read about my adventures, here.
Featured on Mothers and More today
I’m excited to be featured on Mothers and More today with a piece on following your dreams despite obstacles and your own self-imposed fears. Read it here.
Books That Last
I’ve been reading “Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing, by Judy Blume, to my daughters, Emerson, age 5 and Ella, 9. I remember reading it as a child like it was yesterday, curled up in my childhood bed, burning with resentment for Peter and the unfairness of it all as he was expected to participate [...]
Announcing WRITE FOR THE FIGHT
Several months ago Tracey Hansen and I had a crazy idea for a book. Feeling sad and hopeless over how many lives have been altered or ended because of breast cancer, we decided, quite literally, to write for the fight. You may remember we announced a writing contest on our blogs looking for writers to [...]
Finding red dirt…
I am home. Today the rain falls in drops bigger than mist but smaller than a teardrop in a straight line outside my office window. I cannot see the Cascade mountain range from my window today but I know they linger unseen within the fog of this February morning. The dirt my puppy brings in [...]
In search of red dirt…
I’ve come to find the red dirt. The red dirt of Emmylou Harris’ Alabama, my grandmother’s childhood journal, and the characters in my manuscript. This beast of a manuscript I’ve begun to think of as my Opus. I started Duet for Three Hands several years ago, after inspiration from letters and short stories written by [...]
Essay and author interview with award-winning writer Sarah Bosworth
Today I’m honored to have writer Sarah Bosworth on my blog. She agreed to lend us her award-winning school essay in which she answers the question: are you proud of your country? Sarah is 12 years old. Yes, you read that right. You’ll be even more surprised after you read her essay. The crispness and [...]
Foreshadow of Spring
The sweet fragrance is in the breeze when I step outside. It’s only a hint. But it’s unmistakably nature’s perfume, sweet and spicy, somewhere between honeysuckle and plumeria, a foreshadow of the coming spring. Like a promise from God, it whispers to me, because it still yelps of winter here: cold wind against my face, [...]
Happy Chocolate Day Contest
It’s a bit like a drug around my house. All through dinner their eyes have a certain glimmer like an addict looking for a fix. They might even unknowingly lick their lips. They glance furtively towards the pantry, rushing through dinner, no matter that it’s taken me all day to cook in my crock-pot. “Can [...]
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