Do The Right Thing Even If You Look Like An Idiot
Have you ever tried to do what you were pretty sure was the right thing only to have it explode? Even have two other seemingly sane and intelligent people tell you yes, you should do it before you went ahead and did that thing that exploded? So here's the story. It...
And Then There Were Three
No fault of the chicken gynecologist’s, but Meg didn’t make it. She'd seemed much better shortly after the stuck egg removal by Nik and bathtub treatment by Diana, but then she worsened steadily over the next couple of days. Desperate stabs at word combinations on...
Book Banning: Seriously?
An article on the front page of USA Today caught my husband’s eye while he was standing in line to pay for coffee last week. Apparently he made a spectacle of himself because he laughed so uncontrollably that he spit the coffee all over himself and the person in...
“Make It Mean Something”
The sky and air felt charged this week when I walked Hannah and Maggie, the chocolate Labs. The moon was already up while the sun hung low and cool in a fading denim sky. Too early for twilight! The scent of crushed leaves was strong as the dogs hunted in the dry...
The Chicken Gynecologist
Here’s another story about the urban chickens. I have to admit that research for the next novel is accumulating much faster and more conveniently than material for the one I'm currently writing. On which I should be concentrating. But we’re in the first crisis with...
Using Sense Memory
My husband and I have just watched the movie Stand By Me for at least the tenth time. About every two years we seem to crave another viewing, usually in high summer, which is when the movie is set. This time instead of renting it, we gave up and bought the Deluxe...
On Zusak, Gadhafi and Surprise
An unexpected ludicrous moment, a twist into tragedy, a flash of tenderness: surprise by a character is a crucial element of a riveting story. Speaking yesterday at the College of Mount Saint Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio, Marcus Zusak discussed this as well as...
Write What You Don’t Know
Everyone's heard the line, "Write about what you know." If I only wrote about what I know, I'd have run dry years ago. It's learning a subject that I've stumbled on and become fascinated with, and discovering how it fits with a story idea in my head that keeps me at...
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...