BLISS HOUSE is number four. I never imagined I would have four novels out in the world, all available in one form or another. In fact, for at least half of my life I never thought seriously of being a writer at all. But then I suddenly, irrevocably, absolutely knew that it was what I …Read More

  This is my childhood piano: A Baldwin spinet that was already seven or eight years old when my parents bought it. I was about nine when it came to live at our house, so we’re roughly the same age. It was long both the instrument of my torture and my delight. Maybe I’ve written …Read More

I’m so glad nature knows what it’s doing. Here we are at the end of March, and spring, whether winter likes it or not, is finally here. Not so as you could tell by the thermometer, but the signs are all around. The branches of my rose bushes are tipped in red, the iris and …Read More

Growth is messy. I uploaded this photo of our ravine without taking a really good look at it. I was fixated on the late afternoon sun peeking over the hill and treetops, and thinking “light! life!” *cue angelic chorus* But seeing the whole image, I’m reminded that there’s much more going on here. Buttressing the …Read More

If I don’t do it, who will? If you’re walking down an empty street far away from the nearest fire station, and come upon a burning house, you’re going to have to ask yourself this question if you suspect someone inside needs rescuing. The question is also going to come up if you’re the only …Read More

Since I didn’t make it to church this week, I’m going to use today’s blog as a confessional vehicle, okay? It’s about…romance. I know. I’m aghast, too. Friday night I fell asleep watching The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel on my iPad. The falling asleep part had more to do with my tiredness than the film. …Read More

My son (not the one pictured above) started listening to Christmas carols back in September. That is not a typo. Yes. September. We told him that those songs were NOT ALLOWED until after Halloween, and then they could only be listened to in his room up until Thanksgiving. But thirteen year-old boys are notoriously unreliable …Read More

I am SUCH a procrastinator. This is not a surprise to anyone who knows me well. I get a big rush from plowing all my energy into things at the last minute. It’s intoxicating. I think I’m probably an amateur adrenalin junkie. You won’t find me on thrill rides at amusement parks, or jumping out …Read More

Being a kid who was attracted to the unusual, the disturbing, the alien, and otherness, I always wanted to visit a sideshow, but I was discouraged from it by my folks and, later, friends. Mostly on the grounds that it was a rip-off. But, finally, at my advanced age of *ahem*, I decided that I …Read More

The dogs and I have been walking in the hour before dusk each day. I used to call the stretch of land between the woods where we walk the deer pasture, or the upper pasture. We do have a lower pasture–and it is pasture enough. Flat, big enough for a horse or two. It was …Read More