Today I went to hear Husband Bob give a 2-hr presentation on clinical hypnosis at the UNC School of Social Work.  He'd worked really hard on what he was going to say and had been calling it his "valedictory speech."  Not that he's retiring; he continues his psychotherapy practice three days a week (and more.) […] Read More

It has already been quite a weekend here on Lake Halleluia.  Playboy Radio has invited me for an interview to talk about my novel, Cobalt Blue; Playboy, the magazine, has always run good fiction, you know. And my hometown paper, Wilmington's StarNews, has launched my season with this novel's first traditional review.  (A couple of […] Read More

On almost any day, I can feel the pressure of the parking brake dragging on my soul when I have my first look at my email inbox.  Then the decision-making process begins.  Which item will be easiest to take care of? Which will be quickest?  Which will be juicy and interesting? Which should I stare at […] Read More

  From Frances Schultz's blog, "Celebrating Beauty in Everyday Living," an admirable pursuit in itself.  Read More

When our dog Kaya recently executed a triple flip after hitting a moving car, landing unharmed, I mentioned this on Facebook.  And more people responded than is usually the case.  Lots more.  So I learned something about getting attention in the social media and it goes without saying that attention is good.  What I learned: bring in […] Read More

I'm cooking up so many jazzy promotional things to draw attention to Cobalt Blue that I woke up one morning last week and said to myself: Are you out of your mind? That was the morning after I had hit the costume websites and ordered floor-length cobalt blue hooded cloaks (for the walking advertisers and one […] Read More

How a New Zealand yoga teacher handles (on a good day) a moment of awkwardness/fear/feeling unappreciated. From The Yoga Lunchbox: "At yoga on Wednesday night only three people show up. It's easy to get upset about that – to worry about the cost of teaching versus the income of the class, to worry about why people […] Read More

We all know it's easier to talk long than to talk short.  Same with writing.  A generous amount of time/space gives you room to move around. To be brief means to be very clear. On March 25, my psychologist husband Bob Dick is going to sum up what he has learned about using hypnosis in roughly 50 […] Read More

Goodness, gracious, it wasn't supposed to be out until the end of this month, which is almost 30 days away.  But then mid-week I started to hear rumors: your book is on the shelf at Quail Ridge Books & Music. Official publication dates never do mean a whole lot; books drift out in the neighborhood of the assigned […] Read More

The always-intriguing Sun magazine has a back page called Sunbeams made up of quotes on an unnamed theme.   A page I long ago pulled out and stashed away for future stumblings-across offers bits of wisdom on courage. Here is one of the page's gems: "People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.  People […] Read More