At the balcony of my Air BnB, I’m facing what might be the only (and loudest) water feature in all of Houston proper. I’m exaggerating of course, but not much. Even a retention pond is hard to find here, never mind a natural water feature. The Buffalo Bayou, slowly flowing about a mile south from...
Plot is simply letting characters’ desires unfold and run to their logical ends. Ray Bradbury My house is empty now, save some cough medicine and my Macbook desktop computer, which will travel in the back seat of the car. The contractors are upstairs painting and listening to Mexican ranchera. A favorite just finished playing, a song...
I have officially been edged out of my house and have made a little office for myself in the garage. The contractors have made their way from the third floor, all the way to the first floor of my house, working their way down and repainting the entire thing along the way. Eventually, they will...
My College Hunk movers arrived a little over an hour ago. They each appear to be in their early 20s, bright-eyed and jocular in the way of 20-somethings and probably visit the gym 2-3 times per week. It occurs to me that I wouldn’t know a hunk if one smacked me in the face. I...
I have spent the better part of the day packing boxes, getting them ready for movers to wisk away into the portable storage container that’s sitting on my driveway. The moving company is called College Hunks Movers. I saw them advertised someplace, and called and that was that. I don’t shop around unless Steve makes...
I’m giddy at the fact that tomorrow on July 3rd, Disney + is going to premier Hamilton as a live stage production recording with all the original cast. You can view the trailer here. I was lucky enough to see it live in 2018 when it came through Houston. The tickets...
I watched Abbiee Emmons’ YouTube video about narrative pacing the other day (she has a lot of great writing tips on her channel), in which she explains how the rate at which your brain processes each written word affects the pace of your writing. This is because while reading, your conscious...
I’m sitting here on the floor of my bedroom, it’s nearly the end of the day, past 10 pm. I think every one of us is on an iPad with no sign of shutting down. We like to call moments like these, independent study time. Yesterday I heard from my editor. She apologized for being...
Around the playground. Photo credit: Penny My first opportunity to write a book review came when the editor of Task & Purpose emailed me and asked if I wanted to review a fiction anthology titled, The Road Ahead: Stories of the Forever War. At the time, I had already written a few...
Visiting with J this week, it occurred to me that it's fun to visit with friends and family around shared interests via apps. It's something different from the usual catching up over the phone, which sometimes feels like a run-down of "this is what I've been doing since the last time we talked," rather than...
