Once upon a time I married a man who liked to mess about in boats. He had a dream of cruising the waters of the Eastern United States and maybe the rivers of Middle America, when the time was right. In 2015—thirty-four years later—we completed that trip. It took us from the Gulf Coast to … Read more

Anxiety is something most of us live with. In my case, it is caused by lots of things: poor sleep, little exercise, a changing world I no longer recognize, and the aches and pains of aging. The main stressor is frustration, usually caused by my computer. I did not grow up in the computer age. … Read more

My kids loved Halloween. I didn’t. Nights were usually cold, sometimes rainy. The kids wanted to start early and finish late. Instead of a cute plastic pumpkin for their candy, they took pillowcases—more room for their haul. Candy—in many shapes and forms—were strewn on the floor afterward while they picked out the “good stuff.” Sometimes … Read more

Friends ask me why I write. Writing calms me in a world of uncertainty where doom scares appear daily on all platforms and hope depends on which podcast you hear or which accounts you follow. Writing forces me to pay attention to my characters, my settings, my stories, and where all of this is in … Read more

For those of you who have pets, you know how deeply ingrained they become in your life. We adopted Ralph, our senior Siamese cat, from the local shelter. He’d been brought in as a stray, had a tipped ear to indicate he’d been neutered at one time, and was quite frightened when we took him … Read more