Every parent has lived with a pet she did not want. In my case, it was an albino corn snake named Maize. Maize was beautiful as snakes go with a lovely pattern in shades of deep rose, coral, and salmon. She was small at first and adorable as creatures are in infancy. She belonged to [...]
Monopoly has added a cat. Of course, it won’t go where you want it to, is skittish around noisy places like railroads, and will laugh at the idea that you can contain it in jail. And you will never collect on that whole income tax thing. Cats don’t do taxes. By popular vote, the cat [...]
Painter Anna Oneglia created the artwork for the cover of my novel of lost and found creativity, Maud’s House. I remember the first time my young daughter saw it she said, “It looks like Maud’s outside looking outside.” The story is about an artist who at one time was so full of creativity that she [...]
Things are going missing in our lives. Suddenly, I have found myself on a different set of tracks, when all along I thought I was on the same train. As Dellarobia says in Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Flight Behavior, “It floored her to be one of the people seeing the world as it used to be. [...]
Book of Mercy has received the Awesome Indies Seal of Approval. This is like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval only much better because it’s not about the best board game or a super skillet or an incredible iron. It’s about words and readers and writing. Awesome Indies is the brainchild of Tahlia Newland, who [...]
To all the children born in December: sorry. I don’t know what we were thinking in March (well, actually I do). As a parent of a December child, I know that you are the greatest Christmas gift your parents will ever get. I also know that you get the shaft in presents and celebration every [...]
All I want for Christmas is: illumination. Light is a gift. Fire was a game changer for the cave family. Chevy Chase became the ultimate bad light bulb hunter and a maestro of light in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation all because he wanted to give his family the brightest house on the block. And don’t [...]
After several excruciating hours navigating the mass mileage of the Mall of America, I lug my Christmas bags home, plop down in a chair, and realize with sadness: I don’t know how to do it right anymore. Christmas shopping, that is. I have an indescribable urge to wail for my mother. Not that the shopping [...]
The reason I host Christmas cookie decorating parties is that baking is an imprecise science (at least in my kitchen), and, occasionally, you need someone to take the fall. I also am not a fan of the cookie exchange parties, where everyone brings a container of cookies, tosses them on the table, and mixes and [...]
Where do your good ideas come from? Are you a genius or do you have a genius? There is a difference as Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, points out in a recent video about the creative process. She notes that early cultures believed they had a genius, “a divine spirit that came from [...]