My Top 3 Unusual Book Recommendations From 2020
This morning I’m at a primitive campsite in one of Florida’s state parks. Firewood crackles and hisses in front of me in its ordinary and mesmerizing way. I’m pleased with my fire-making skills. Last night I had managed smoking wood but no flames. Nick watched, unimpressed, as I blew into the kindling, trying to get...
Land Survey #flashfiction
Two neighbors Sam and Dennis, live side by side in a residential area. Sam is built like a refrigerator and lives in a colonial-style home. Dennis is very tall and has a habit of hitting his head against things. His is a Spanish style home with vaulted ceilings. Established oak trees line the streets. Heat...
My #NaNoWriMo
Woman sweeping, with cat. 2020 (photocredit: Steve) It’s well past the kids’ bedtime at this point, and I’m parked at the kitchen counter waiting for P to do her math homework. Soccer days are usually like this when we arrive home late, thanks to our regular ritual of stopping for vanilla cones at McDonald's. Still, I...
Captain Marvel and Fun with Extended Metaphors
I have now arrived at what has become my favorite activity during the week. For about an hour, I get to sit outside in my lawn chair underneath a colorful open sky in what has lately become a cool Florida breeze all. At the same time, B and P partake in the joys of dribbling,...
One Small Win After Another
P is drawing a picture of a thunderstorm in her composition notebook right now. The clouds in her picture are orange, and for the lightning, she is using a black dry erase marker. This is annoying since she has her Crayola markers to use, and dry erase markers are specialized and more expensive, etc. etc....
Metaphor, Figurative Language, and Silos
My parents have a patio that backs up against a small pond, surrounded by a forest preserve along the opposite side from where I'm sitting. It’s pretty, lush, and verdant (green!). The air conditioning unit just kicked on, and it’s drowning out the sounds of distant birds squawking (I haven’t learned my bird calls yet)...
Handling Character Descriptions A La Tom Wolfe
I’d never been so happy to sit and watch Penny play soccer as I was the other day. The rain from earlier in the afternoon brought with it fresh tropical air and a blue-streaked sky, and it was good to sit back and watch the kids do normal kid things. The league has taken great...
How to Handle the Passage of Time in Writing
We arrived in good spirits (and making good time) in Central Florida on Friday. The sun was blazing, and the sky, clouds, and grass seem to exist in bumped-up saturation compared with Texas. While I grew up here, and eventually became a young adult, I couldn’t wait to leave home. So much so that when...