Seeing Clearly, Acting Courageously...

May 27, 2015 by

The Universe has been screaming to me lately. It seems everywhere I look I see an invitation to examine my thoughts on courage; what it means to be courageous, how to practice courage, and am I a courage person? Courage. As I’ve sat with the idea of courage, my own definition of what courage means to me is beginning to emerge. Admittedly, I find it uncomfortable, troublesome, and nowhere near its conventional meaning. Courage: the ability to do something that you know is difficult or dangerous—Merriam-Webster Let me share something with you. Last March when we were renovating our new home the situation was nothing short of disastrous. In addition to the usual stresses associated with renovations, our experience was made all the more complicated by the incompetent contractor leading the project. There were missed deadlines,...

read more

Negative Review Positive Opportunity...

Oct 1, 2014 by

This could be potentially painful. “I read the book only because it’s for the book club, and the book club chose the book only because one of the members knows the (local) author. I’m guessing it’s younger than a YA book, even though the heroine is 13 years old. Borrowing heavily from the Pandora’s Box story, this version is revamped to Pandora’s Jar and that “Hope” was never let out of the Jar. The heroine of the story, Charis, is a reincarnated Grace whose mission is to open the Jar and let Hope out to save mankind. There, you have the whole story. Skip the book. The author attempted to make the book ‘smart’ by mixing in (borrowing) a lot of Greek Mythology. Those were the best parts. The less than smart parts were...

read more

The Tenerview with Kathryn Fitzmaurice...

Sep 25, 2014 by

Clearly, my life these days has been filled with all things middle grade. I don’t remember what it was that I “bing’d” on the particular day I discovered Kathryn’s blog, but I’m grateful for the happenstance.  When I read her list of favorite middle grade books, I knew I wanted to have her for the Tenerview. She’s a woman after my own heart and I’m happy to introduce her to you. About Kathryn Fitzmaurice: Photo credit: Audey England When Kathryn was thirteen years old, her mother sent her to New York City over the summer to visit her grandmother, who was a science fiction author. After seeing how her grandmother could make the characters in her books into whomever she wanted, Kathryn decided that she, too, wanted to become a writer someday. Years later,...

read more

No More Excuses … (for now)...

Jul 29, 2013 by

It is 4:46 AM as I begin this post. I haven’t blogged in a while. I haven’t had the time. Time. The lack of time has been my chief complaint of late. More than ever, what I want more of in my life is time … time that I can spend as I choose, to do with what I want. Here lately, what I want most is to write the second book brewing inside of me, but there doesn’t ever seem to be enough time. Of course, we both know that’s not true. Right? I’m not the only person walking the planet who is passionate about one thing but paid to do another. That’s the way it is some times … scratch that … most times. So few of us are lucky enough to...

read more