Remember when you were a kid, toiling through homework at the kitchen table? How many times did you look up and ask your Mom or Dad “How do you spell __________ (insert word of choice)?” If your parents were like mine, the answer never varied, no matter the word. What...

Some weeks are theme-driven. This week’s theme is repairs and maintenance.   Counting Saturday as the first day of my new week, I took on the repair of a short story with a submission deadline on the following Tuesday. I met Saturday afternoon with my critique...

Many years ago, a co-worker was telling a story about her young granddaughter. I don’t remember what the child’s achievement was, but I do remember that she’d said with pride she’d done it her own big self.   Independence is a good thing, especially when there’s...

Usually my weeks follow a predictable pattern. I work on writing projects Monday through Friday, catch up on odds and ends on Saturday and clean house on Sunday. Maybe it’s because it’s spring, a season known for unpredictability and change. That’s certainly true of...

Most English-speaking people are familiar with the idiom good grief. If nowhere else, you may remember it as Charlie Brown’s regular lament in the “Peanuts” comic strip by Charles M. Schultz. In this context, good grief is an expression of dismay, surprise or relief...

Ah, the heartening effects of pleasant springtime weather! It makes me want to go OUTSIDE. A lot. This spring I have an excellent reason to get out of the house and into the back yard. We moved to Walla Walla mid-May, 2018; now is the first time I’ll be able to get a...