Read this one afternoon on the coast of Costa Rica.  The picture sticks with me as a way to be courageous while simply sitting still. From Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa: "I, for a moment, thought the situation might be awkward to him. But as we sat together in the afternoon sun, in no way pretending […] Read More

In the first place, I wouldn't have expected to find such a story in Coastal Living magazine, and then I saw it was by a writer I know, Durham's Barry Yeoman. The story angle that made the piece fit into a magazine about coasts was the fact that it all took place near the water in Cadiz, Spain, where "Atlantic waves […] Read More

Elvis and I share a birthday, this past Tuesday.  My brothers have always been good about reminding me of this auspicious connection.  But that's not all. This week as I turned 64, I learned the whole humbling history of the day.  Facebook Friend Robert McDowell connected me with Wikipedia’s account of my birthday from the year […] Read More

Zen and the Art of Tightrope Walking explains today about the uncanny appeal of the person who might be characterized as "a hot mess." Now, one could view this as objectification or, as I do, the recognition that sizzling attractiveness does not require conventional symmetrical orderly beauty. At a spa where I was teaching writing a few years ago there […] Read More

It could require some courage — a deep breath at least –to show up in public at a store and take a seat at a reading for a book titled Wanting Sex Again: How to Rediscover Your Desire and Heal a Sexless Marriage. I was there for the kickoff reading at the North Raleigh Barnes & Noble  because […] Read More

It seems I was waiting to round the corner of Christmas to see clearly to March 29.  Up until Christmas, that date was a long way away.  No longer.  The publication date of my upcoming novel is now almost upon me, and it's suddenly clear to me that I'm running behind (which wasn't true last […] Read More

  First time I've tried the big-screen approach to a holiday dinner.  Husband Bob and I on the left came from North Carolina to Arizona to have Thanksgiving with my stepson Jay and his fiance Amanda (she's the photographer) and while we ate dinner around a coffee table, my older stepson Chuck ate with us in […] Read More

Here's your Anxious Holidays list (a la Letterman): 10. Do some minor home renovating since you have guests coming; it'll be nice for them to get to see the results. 9.  Decide unilaterally that this year we are going to do things a little differently. 8.   Make your own (anything.) 7.   Shop for a last-minute tree stand or one […] Read More

….The women who ran toward the sound of gunfire.  They were courageous.  Read More

From Robert Bausch on Facebook, reprinted with his permission: It's about what he thinks we are up to as teachers and writers:   Recently I showed my students in a humanities seminar the black and white film The Miracle Worker. Some wanted to know why I thought that film was appropriate for such a class. Why did […] Read More