In Praise of Little Things
October 11, 2026 • No Comments
We’re told to keep gratitude journals, and I am certain some better human beings (better than me, at least) actually do that. Because I lean into multi-tasking, I have managed to be grateful and slothful simultaneously. Still, there is merit in counting our blessings. Yes, let there be praise and thanks for the little things in life. In this cray-cray world, we need attainable morsels of joy. 
Really, there are so many things that make me happy in the moment—when the coffee is excellent and the sun warm on our faces. The play of music and silence, the scent of autumn woods, or the softness of a freshly laundered blanket. These are plentiful gifts—all we need to do is slow down and notice them. Today I am thankful for the cat sleeping on my feet.
We can create our own bits of contentment, sometimes from very basic places. A ten second pause to clean one’s glasses. Organizing a drawer. Getting the seatbelt adaptor out of the package and installed so buckling up isn’t synonymous with strangulation. Minor irritants get overlooked because a bigger fire is more urgent. And yet, life is so much better the instant we give ourselves permission to deal with it. Today I am thankful for finally fixing the hallway door so that the knob no longer comes apart in my hand.
There are plenty of other joys, such as chatting with friends and family, remembering or being remembered on a birthday or holiday, or simply doing someone a kindness. Giving the wave when another car lets you past. Smiling at the neighbor. Filling up the bird feeder. It feels good to be part of the positive energy exchange that makes up life. Today I am grateful that I phoned my aunt to wish her a Happy Thanksgiving, and unexpectedly connected with my cousin, too.
There is one common thread here—paying attention to the world around us, to our wants and needs, or to the other beings sharing our space. Gratitude requires perception and intention; we must notice and respond to things before we’re thankful for them. This is especially important when our attention has become a commodity every advertiser and media platform demands. Their job is not to generate a sense of peace and contentment, but to make us want what they’re selling. Kind of the opposite of thankfulness, and I don’t need that energy.
Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not talking about swearing off screen time, although I take what I see there with a grain of salt. I enjoy my smart phone, but I try to budget my time, slow down and enjoy the real world, too.
And when that office mate pops by mid-afternoon with a box of cookies? Truly, it’s a gift from the cosmos to help me past the afternoon slump. Of course I give the event a precious piece of my attention, and a great many thanks.
Grandmacore for the Win
September 20, 2026 • No Comments
When I was in school, the subject of home economics was, to put it politely, considered past its prime. Homemade clothes were uncool, and acceptable snacks were of an unnatural chemistry impossible to replicate in a common kitchen. Scratch cooking was woefully Little House on the Prairie or, for the grimly imaginative, witches of Macbeth.
But that was then. Now there’s a sudden resurgence of “analog” crafts, aka Grandmacore hobbies, especially among younger consumers. For those who remember disdaining Home Ec, one might be forgiven a touch of whiplash as sewing, knitting, quilting, baking, gardening, and canning trend like mad. After years of having to hunt for supplies, retail options cram my social media feed.
Why? Breaking free of the relentless doom scroll is an obvious reason to take up, well, just about any hobby. A pastime that hones life skills is even better. Both the pocketbook and the landfill benefit if one knows how to mend or cook a basic meal: less waste, less packaging, more value. And, something made by human hands is just nicer, whether it’s a Christmas gift or dinner. It carries a bit of the maker with it in a lovely and personal way.
Peak Grandmacore includes canning and preserving. I’ve done a little, so when the subject came up among friends, I stuck my hand up to participate in a pickle-making session as I had some of the necessary equipment. So it was that three of us gathered to produce six dozen jars of crunchy dill delights. For anyone curious, this is the basic recipe we used. 
One friend purchased the cucumbers and dill from a local farmer, so they were absolutely fresh when they arrived in my kitchen, still smelling of sunshine and a salt bath. The next hours were all about fragrant spices, sparkling clean jars, chatter, snacks, steam, and shared work. Women have always known how to divide and conquer complex tasks—just ask Macbeth’s witches. There is a magical connection in shared physical labor that can’t be replicated online.
And here’s another reason to break out the ladles and crochet hooks—community. Sewing bees and quilting circles have long existed as an excuse for getting together based on shared crafting goals. Friendship and creative communion are a powerful mix. It’s living real life in the best possible way.
My grandmother—the one who taught me how to bake when I could barely reach the counter—would be gratified that the younger generations are finally figuring this out.
Dill pickle recipe:
Here are the ingredients we used:
For the bottom of each quart jar:
1/8 tsp calcium chloride (for crispness)
1tsp mustard seeds
1tsp black peppercorns
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
2 or 3 peeled garlic cloves
Head and ferns of fresh dill (put some on top as well)
The brine recipe:
8 cups water + 8 cups vinegar + heaping 1/3 cup of granulated sugar.
These are the very basic instructions. I recommend watching this video , especially if you haven’t used a water bath for canning before. Put the spices in sterilized canning jars, fill with clean pickling cucumbers and top with brine (leave about ½ inch at the top). Poke with a chopstick to release any bubbles. Seal until finger tight. Process in a water bath per instructions in the video. Let cool and then tighten seal. Leave 4 to 6 weeks before consuming.
Please note this process involves pots of boiling water and other hot equipment. Although I paid the price in feline wrath afterward, I locked my oh-so-curious cats upstairs during the process for everyone’s safety.
Lessons from the back of the closet
August 8, 2026 • No Comments
Every so often I’m asked how one learns to write. There are a lot of answers to this question, especially given that there are many approaches to writing, such as planner, pantser, and let’s-just-cannonball-into-the-pool. A good tool kit is gathered from a variety of experiences. I picked up techniques writing as an academic, for newspapers, and eventually as a fiction writer, and blended them together into a method that works for me.
Recently, I was excavating a closet and discovered a long row of binders containing the many, many articles I wrote as a freelancer for various newspapers. They covered 13 years of work and took up far too much space. Following the advice of assorted downsizing experts, I scanned them and only kept a few clippings for scrapbook memories. This was the least painful way I could think of to let go of a body of work that defined me until the papers I worked for stopped paying for freelance arts coverage.
Going through the lot piece by piece reminded me of many fabulous people and performances, old friends and teachers, and my own musical experiments. It also reminded me (yes, I’m getting to a point) how much that work informed my fiction career.
First, I learned to write to particular specifications in terms of content, length, style, and anything else the editor asked for, including deadlines and revisions. In other words, I was far better prepared to navigate traditional publishing houses.
Second, I learned how to ask questions and, better yet, listen. The art of the interview is essentially digging for gold while under a time pressure. It’s getting beyond the obvious to the emotional truth that’s not in the press release. The right question may reveal the mainspring of an artistic genius, and sometimes it results in a good shared laugh. I’m thinking about (among many others) the internationally-acclaimed instrumental soloist who invited me over to look at his train set, and the opera singer who confessed that performing is better than sex. Those were very human and entirely unpredictable moments.
Interviews are handy in terms of research, and they’re also incredible grounding for characterization. People are layered, complex, contradictory, brilliant, and breathtaking. They contain the gloriously unexpected, and so should characters in fiction. In other words, create far, far beyond the archetype and write the character no one else could duplicate.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, I learned to pick through a mountain of information and tell a story in a set number of words. The obvious thread is usually not the right one. The process is all about sifting, connecting, and bringing the most impactful narrative to life. Also, the writer must make it hooky, snappy, and exciting for an audience who will quickly move on to something else with more pizzazz. This is exactly what commercial fiction requires.
In short, I learned a ton of transferrable skills as a newspaper writer. Even though the industry changed dramatically, and I moved on to greener pastures, it served as a kind of apprenticeship. Of course, fiction writing requires more in the toolbox than what I’ve mentioned here, but I had an excellent starter kit when I got serious about constructing novels. I’m absolutely grateful to those editors who put me through my paces back in the day. It was humbling and occasionally frustrating, but I learned by doing, which is how I learn best. Call it artisanal intelligence—entirely from scratch.
Useless (or not) to a Degree
June 10, 2025 • No Comments
Debate abounds around careers and jobs and the correct educational path to achieve success. This isn’t new, nor is philosophizing about what success actually looks like. I’m a writer. In my case, success is gathering enough minutes into uninterrupted hours to actually get some work done, and there’s no certificate that can make that happen.
On that note, I am occasionally asked what degree one should take to be a writer. Honestly, that depends a lot on one’s tastes and the options available. A degree is a fabulous achievement and a worthy end in itself, but is not to be confused with a career destination. Put another way, what it says on the box isn’t always what it will mean for your ambitions. This is especially relevant when it comes to the ambiguous domain of the arts.For instance, when I attended university, the Creative Writing department was having a good existential wallow. Anything with a linear plot and clear resolution was shaken from the soles of their Birkenstocks with scorn. They published a well-regarded literary magazine that left me bored and confused. For me, who wanted to write classic adventure stories, it wasn’t a good fit.
I took myself to the English Literature department and signed on for four years spent reading books, which is what I did everyday anyway. It was bliss. Plus, it taught me things I wanted to know. We studied plot structure, literary technique, the use of language for effect, and how great works both reflected and changed societal attitudes. We studied comedy and drama and how plots with a bit of each weaved together to keep the audience’s appetite engaged. And, we studied characterization, from Homer to Shakespeare to Dickens and Austen. The material ran the gamut from antiquity to living authors to romantic poets and Victorian gothic fiction. Nothing was off the table, and it was up to me to decide where to focus. What a banquet!
Not every new author would be as besotted as I was, but I loved learning how to break down a work of literature and analyze what made it tick. More than that, I loved the autonomy to like what I liked without apology. I spent my time between semesters workshopping a series of totally unpublishable novels using what I’d studied. Those books will never see daylight, but they formed me as an author. When I graduated, I still had lots to learn about specific genres, but I came away with a voice and a respectable toolkit of techniques.
Today, universities have more options. There are degree programs in popular fiction. There are also tons of on-line workshops and conferences, which is infinitely more doable for most than signing on for four years steeped in literary criticism. I recognize that I was extremely lucky to have scholarships, indulgent parents, and the kind of time that only exists when you’re nineteen.
What I realize in retrospect is that I was operating on a very old method of teaching, which was copywork. Art students used to learn their brushwork by reproducing the masters. I was learning by studying and replicating as well. This method doesn’t need a degree, just good observational skills and a wide appetite. I personally recommend learning a bit of literary analysis, but I’m biased.
The point is, think about what you read and don’t stick to the familiar. Look at poetry, drama, and essays as well as fiction. The real value of my degree was examining a huge variety of material. However you choose to study—formally, casually, with a specialization or ad hoc—it’s about stockpiling your brain with ideas and the skills to make them work. Future you on book 40 will be thankful, because you won’t be repeating yourself.
A certificate in a frame is nice, but its real value is whether or not it contributes to your artistic survival skills. That’s up to you. Keep bringing new content to the table. Don’t get stuck in a genre echo chamber. Keep readers engaged by offering them something fresh. In the end, serving your audience is what matters.
Bees With Attitude
March 23, 2025 • No Comments
Writing engages both emotions and intellect, but it’s primarily a mental exercise. Sometimes I need to get out of my head and back into the physical world. For that, there is nothing as satisfying as dirt. Dogs roll in it. Children make mud pies. Adults are just as entranced, but they call it gardening.
My fondness for grubbing in the yard intersects nicely with character research into herbalism and the healing arts. Many of my stories involve magic, witches, herbwives, or even just medicines from a period when people brewed their own tinctures and syrups. Sensory information—the touch/taste/scent of plants—is excellent detail sure to pull readers right into a scene. Plus, I can use the results in the kitchen. It’s a win/win all around, especially since I’m all about creating an oasis from the concrete and chaos of the urban environment.
It’s impossible to garden without forming an acquaintance with pollinators, especially bees. We tend to think of honeybees as the main event, but they aren’t native to North America and in fact have pushed out some of their native cousins. A few years ago, I began hatching mason bees, which are small critters local to my area, and got a bumper crop of apples as a thank-you. It’s March, and I’m still eating last year’s produce—a significant savings at the grocery till.
Mason bees build their nests with mud walls between each egg (hence the name). They’re also called orchard bees. They’re active from around April to June and do most of the fruit tree pollination. Their range is only a few city lots, so it makes sense to put up a bee house to guarantee their services.
Where I have trouble is encouraging them to nest—I put out the cocoons and they hatch just fine, but they never stick around to lay their eggs. The sense of failure is real. It’s like getting one-star reviews from your spa visitors. This year, I’ve put up a house built by a local expert who has far more experience in bee accommodations.
The other thing I’ve considered is the menu. While dandelions are plentiful, they aren’t native and don’t have enough nutrition. Good-for-bees flowers will vary widely depending on geography, so I went to an indigenous plant nursery. This was fun—the place had very little I was familiar with, even though the seedlings on offer actually belong to this part of the world.
I came out with Sea Blush (Plectritis congesta). It’s a pretty purple flower from the Valerian family that grows wild in the Pacific Northwest, and it will feed the young mason bees when they hatch. Hopefully it’s a crowd-pleaser!
Yes, that’s a lot of random information about bees, but gardens need them. It’s estimated that one out of every three bites of food we eat depends on bee pollination.
Another cool fact about mason bees? Every female is a queen.
I love the attitude.
Maybe I just like sparkly crystals
June 22, 2020 • No Comments
Synchronicity is an odd thing. 
I’ve always been interested in astrology, tarot, earth religions, feminism, and folklore. They have a lot to say about how the psyche works and–especially for followers of Joseph Campbell–how stories function. After all, reality is the tales we tell ourselves.
As an author, this subject is an important wellspring. Hence my interest in dreams and symbols and imagery that crosses cultures and the boundaries of time. I investigate these subjects, drift away, and come back like a migratory creature on the way to an unexplained destination. Maybe I’m ready for the next layer of information. Maybe I just like sparkly crystals. However, sometimes odd synchronicities happen.
I signed up for a 3-session course on Jungian psychology and alchemy from the Embassy of the Free Mind. With those two subjects combined, how could I not? I’ve attended two sessions so far, and the course addresses the stages of alchemy from a psychological perspective. In a very small nutshell, our personal growth follows the stages of death and rebirth and coming into wisdom through inner work. I love the international nature of the experience (yay for Zoom) and the wide-ranging references to mythology and culture. To be clear, there is no physical chemistry involved. It’s all dreamwork and navel-gazing, but right at this moment in time–after fire, plague, and TP shortages–it’s powerful. We’ve been forced to sit and think about things, and here is a chance to use that introspection. What’s working? What’s the source of unhappiness? How can we be more whole?
At the same time, completely randomly, I picked a DVD off the shelf that had sat there for years unwatched. I got a copy of The Hero’s Two Journeys on a Black Friday sale some time ago but never found the time to play it. I wanted something for a blog review so picked it off the TBR pile. It’s Michael Hauge and Christopher Vogler talking about story structure. Surprise, surprise, the map of the inner journey (particularly Vogler’s analysis using Joseph Campbell’s work) closely parallels the alchemical path. That tidbit was a huge “whoah!” for me, especially when it showed up in such random fashion.
Apparently, I need to pay attention here. Just as a confirmation, I pulled a card from the Wildwood Tarot and got the Nine of Stones (tradition). Part of the meaning is “reverence for past wisdom and sacrifice. The ability to relate to ancient knowledge and pass on the lessons of ancestral memory and ritual.”
I’ve got some thinking to do.
Camellias yesterday and today
March 4, 2020 • No Comments
This is camellia season–a fleeting glimpse of perfection before rain yellows the pristine blooms. I took some photos around the neighborhood and then by chance saw some old illustrations that echoed those beauties. I put them together here:
Documentaries on lifestyle and stuff
March 1, 2020 • No Comments
I have a long list of “I really should watch that someday” documentaries, especially ones about lifestyle and stuff.
Forks Over Knives
Last week I finally watched Fork Over Knives (2011, Virgil Films), which talks about the virtues of a whole-foods, plant-based diet. It’s a few years old but some of the scientific studies cited were new to me. The film spells out why chronic diseases can be reversed through lifestyle. Given my family’s incidence of cancer, this caught my attention. For example, casein, an animal protein, “switched on” cancerous growths in test animals when it formed more than 5% of their diet. When it dropped back down to 5%, the disease retreated.
I know that no study is perfect (for instance, I have strong feelings about animal testing) but it infuriates me that there isn’t more focus on this kind of evidence. There is an epidemic of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, arthritis and other inflammatory diseases. Something like one in three adults develop diabetes in North America. Diet will at the very least alleviate the symptoms in most victims. Why don’t we see the same action on this file as on, say, a virus that kills a mere few thousand world-wide? Because the virus doesn’t have a corporation to lobby on its behalf? I resist conspiracy theories, but one has to wonder.
Will I become vegan? I’ll definitely explore the diet and see how I respond. I’ve been mostly vegetarian for decades but never seriously considered dropping all animal-based foods. I know many people who have and their health is amazing. What’s important, I think, is to have a handful of reliable recipes in advance. That’s how I cut out meat without feeling deprived. I was already able to turn to familiar dishes. Click here for more on Forks Over Knives and its community.
Two other great documentaries I’ve watched recently while doing my ironing are:
Playing With Fire, which is all about the “Financial Independence, Retire Early” movement. This is inspirational and so common-sense, especially if one has a rebellious streak. It definitely made me rethink my savings plan!
What’s With Wheat I saw this one on Amazon Prime. The approach here isn’t “wheat is bad” so much as “what the heck have we done to this crop?” With the recent rise of gluten intolerance, it’s a good question. Some friends who have eaten bread while visiting Europe don’t notice the same side effects, which lends credence to the idea that it’s hybridization and agricultural practice, not so much wheat itself, that’s the problem. Interesting stuff.
As you might have guessed, I’m fascinated by food, lifestyles, and other health stuff. Especially food, because it’s the cornerstone of health, pleasure, and social interaction.
Weekend Coffee was well earned
February 23, 2020 • No Comments
Weekend coffee was well earned this time. These were catch-up days after doing a hard sprint of editing. Lots of email, answering questions from graphic artists, paying bills, cooking, and scheduling the release of a new series. Plus, lightly plotting the next project, which is a bit like flirting with pen and paper. The characters and I are doing a dance, but it’s not too serious yet.
At this moment, my desk looks almost sane. I know it won’t last, but I’ll enjoy the clean surface for today.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the level of administrative detail involved in being a writer. I spent an entire afternoon filling out copyright info on four books, which isn’t hard but does take time. I’m caught up filing applications for now, but too many of those jobs on a long list can give me brain freeze. I’ve been picking them off one by one in a bid for sanity, but I have a long way to go before my halo is sparkling.
Actual writing is more fun. Feedback from my alpha readers is arriving in my inbox, and that means more work before the book goes to a developmental editor. That’s tomorrow’s problem–tonight I’m making a birthday dinner. And eating a doughnut with my weekend coffee treat, because one has to grab the small pleasures as well as the big goals. That’s toffee-pecan icing, BTW. Check out Empire Donuts.
2019 – what was that about?
December 31, 2019 • 2 Comments
Some authors are posting dazzling lists of publications, and I heartily salute their accomplishments. I thought I would have a bumper crop of books, too, when this year started. Somehow, though, things changed along the way and the year didn’t end the way I thought. 2019 was a dumpster fire for a lot of people and, while I count myself lucky, I didn’t entirely escape the smoke. 2020 will be better.
What did I actually get in front of readers this year?
- In January, did a re-release of an older book that rounded out my 2018 goals.
- Released two books in box sets, hit the USA Today bestseller list for both, and then put them in the vault for later.
- Published an essay in an academic work.
- Wrote a short story that’s now a lead magnet.
- Got my extended print distribution onto Ingram Spark.
- By the end of this week, I’ll have finished a draft of a new, full length, first-in series.
I also investigated a lot of marketing courses, played with various ad platforms, and listened to many podcasts. That’s all hard to quantify as achievement, but it will serve me well in future.
Where did that get me?
I think it’s safe to say all authors want enthusiastic fans and financial freedom. It’s not an impossible dream, but it’s not an easy road. It requires groundwork such as intelligent branding, scheduling, and development of infrastructure like engaged newsletter lists, reader funnels, and social media. There are a thousand choices to consider, and dozens of platforms to learn. It’s all behind-the-scenes stuff readers don’t consciously notice and most authors despise unless they have an aptitude for business. However, it’s like gas for a car. It stinks, but you don’t go anywhere without it.
2019 was my trip to the gas station. I’m not done putting everything together, but I’m well on the way. Part of the process has been discovering what mix of marketing makes sense to me, given my time, money, and introvert tendencies. I’ll probably blog more. I’ll review craft resources. I’m also very interested in sharing some of the ingredients that go into world building, especially with the fantasy stuff. I think it’s going to be fun.
And 2020? I haven’t scheduled it all yet, but I’ll have a nice list of the year’s releases by next New Year’s Eve. I’ve put in the work to be ready.