You’ll Use It All Later

It turns out that those monster thighs and herding tendencies that Amy, Diana’s chicken, was developing made a lot of sense.  You didn’t even have to notice the red comb on top of her head;  Amy cleared her throat and let out the first crows right after Diana and her...

Update on Chickens and Posts

I think everyone is due an update on my friend Diana’s urban chickens, aka the world’s easiest research.  My blog post of May 13 introduced the chicks (Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy) when Diana was beginning to wonder if Amy might be, oops, really an Amos.  Recall that hens...

From The Mailbox

Last week a note from a Massachusetts reader appeared in my inbox regarding my book, Where The Trail Grows Faint.  The book, published in 2005 by the University of Nebraska Press, is creative non-fiction about working with my chocolate Labrador retriever, Hannah, in a...

Reaching for The Optimal Experience

I know the jokes about writers.  We work in our pajamas, for one.  We’re obviously at home too, so we ought to be able get the laundry done while we work.  And since our time is our own, it’s only logical that we can run the dog to the vet, clean up the dishes,...

The Mystery of Metaphor

                        “To a poet nothing can be lost.”  Samuel Johnson Something happened a few days ago that got me thinking about depicting emotion when I write, and how often I find my way to it through metaphor.  Winter had reasserted itself, so Hannah’s forest...