Featured Blog Posts – January 2010 Archive (15)

Beneath winter night
Spring smiles in her sleep, dreaming
Of summer and sun.

When I’m older, I might open a bakery. But for now cooking is just another one of those passions of mine. For all I know, it may be the only reason I have friends. I give them stuff, see. They want my lemon custard pies and raisin cookies and cinnamon rolls. I have a particular friend I call, Chick-a-pee, who is quite enamored with my skills. We don’t exchange birthday presents per se, but every year for her celebration, I make and deliver a… Continue

Giant stone rivers
Carrying currents of steel
Smother the landscape.

Why we celebrate
Birthdays for loves who have died:
Memories live on.

Speeding through darkness
A small bubble of brightness
Driving to get home

I'm starting a project today. For the next year, I'm going to post one haiku for every day here on this blog. I will do my best to post it on the actual day, but there are times when I'm in places and/or situations where I have no internet access. When that happens, I will still write the haiku but it won't get posted until I can get back here. So, a year from now there will be 365 haiku here. The object of this project is to try and encapsulate the year like haiku condenses and encapsulates a… Continue

someone got a second verse idea?....


down this old road
I like to walk
along the tracks
to the waiting station
I step inside
go for a ride
down this old road
I like to walk.

I am in love. With shoes. My closet is chock full of pumps, boots, and shiny flats. Every time I see a shoe store I get the urge to yank my car over and partake in the rapture of finding that new pair. Maybe I need a twelve STEP program. It’s about the only materialistic thing I have a problem with and I rationalize this because, by gosh, these shoes DO take me places. Obviously I’m not alone with this addiction. Go to any shoe store and you’ll…

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'It's Above Freezing Can Spring Be Far Behind?'



Okay ladies and gentlemen the sun is up , the pipes have thawed, I'm in a better mood and Spring is just up ahead. Things are on the upswing. I'm lucky I had no burst pipes. And I'm also lucky to have had plenty of clothes to keep me warm. Some folks laugh because I dress in many, many layers this time of year. I figure if it gives them entertainment, let them laugh. I have yet to suffer much from cold weather even when I'm in it. I… Continue

'My New Year Airline Security Plan'



Okay so we end the new year with some guy lighting his underwear om fire on an airliner. Sure it could have been a catastrophe. But it wasn't, thanks to some alert passengers. The government had been warned about this man but no one thought enough about it to put this guy on the 'no fly' list. Thanks to alert passengers neither they nor the airliner were grievously injured.



I think the safeguards put into place at airports around the… Continue

Gutsy and kind-the world would have us believe this is a rare combination, that these people aren’t completely trustworthy. I ask you, who is? Show me a perfect person and I’ll kiss a gecko! I don’t expect I’ll ever have to do this. I’m terrified of them. And I’ve yet to see perfection, not in life, people or love. But despite this, we can accomplish more than we realize.



Case in point: Molly Brown. Born Margaret Tobin in Hannibal…

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Not very long ago I had the pleasure of presenting at the Dahlonaga Book Festival. One of the panels featured myself, Catherine Coulter, and a bevy of other talented authors. We were asked to share our thoughts on the future of publishing. As none of us have crystal balls, we surmised to the very best of our abilities our thoughts on what the future of publishing might hold.



As I consider the advanced me of technologies in just the last few years, the hushed anticipation of the new… Continue

Strewn about, like random shells after high tide lay the remnants of Christmas trees, dribbled with faded tinsel; hugging the curbs waiting for the onslaught of sanitation trucks to whisk them away to become the mulch of Christmas past. Cast out, with nary a thought were those evergreen boughs as they hung lazily over the curb. Clean it up, gifts away, wrapping paper be gone! Christmas is over! A chilly wind blew through the streets as I traversed the… Continue

Oil pop, pop, popping, mushrooms, carrots, snap peas, shrimp big as butterflies, spicy chicken, red chilies’ flung in a huge steel pan, dancing together like a hot cha, cha, cha. That symphony of image and scent, going down on a Saturday Texas night. Like jazz with maracas thrown in. No, not a concert, but sitting ringside at a Japanese eatery, savoring the show. We only got the seats because tables were full. Just what I wanted but…

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Picking up sticks:

some too rough,

too long, not long enough,

too stout, or heavy, crooked;

some with cracks

to pinch the fingers' skin.

in all this forest

there must be one

that's useful, like a ski pole,

a broom, a rod, a javelin, or staff.



Dry as ancient chicken bones,

twisted, signed by beetles

in cryptic runic alphabet,

knobbed and gnarly

as an old man's warted face.



Somewhere in this wood

there… Continue