Inspiration in Quarantine

Inspiration has been hard to come by lately while the country has more or less been on lockdown. The Covid-19 virus has taken its toll on the nation’s health and also my desire to create anything. The usual ways I find inspiration have failed and I have to wonder if…

On Writing

I taught English for many years in what I sometimes refer to as my “old life.” I taught writing to 6th graders who were one-part children and five-parts hormonal whirlwinds. I taught writing to 11th graders who were in a lockdown facility who honestly could not care less about roads…

A Hiatus and a Return

A hiatus is good for a writer’s soul every now and again, even if it is not great for her SEO. I’m at peace with that because I’m a whole person and not just a Google machine, pumping out post after post. I needed a chance to breathe for a…

Keep Today’s Happy Thoughts For When Days Go Bad

My mentor teacher gave me some terrific advice that really didn’t have anything to do with teaching before I began my first year.  It had to do with surviving which really, when it comes down to it, is what a new teacher needs to hear right before the first day…

Changing Frequency

Now that Tea and Madness is published and available I hear one of two predictable questions: What are you working on now? When is the next book coming out? Answering the first question is easy: laundry. I’m working on a whole lot of laundry. As far as the next book…

.crawling before walking.

So it’s like this… I’ve had vertigo.  I seriously had vertigo.  The kind of sickness that people joke about.  This is the sickness that, when I was a receptionist for a general contractor, we fired a guy for lying about having.  He was really home watching soap operas in his…