People Ruin Everything

originally published in New Pop Lit The summer people choked the road, filled up the taverns, trashed the beachfront, and parked everywhere and anywhere, even in places they shouldn’t. Moss’s father was on the city council and had tried, unsuccessfully, to find funding to build a lot so driveways wouldn’t get blocked. The idea of […]

like a shade of dawn

originally published in Libretto Magazine in shadow the glow is soft in sunlight it’s hard candy a room in a house through trees with a purple-pink light you can’t read by it draw by it knit a sweater or darn a sock you can lie, though, surrounded by how it makes you feel which is […]

I Wanted Brothers

I wanted brothers. Two, maybe three, but one alone would have kept me safe from my sister’s abuse, her never-ending rage at my being born. This necessary brother would be in the middle, between us age-wise, a willing defender. He’d always take my side. This brother would be taller than I but not smarter. I […]

Two Poems in Honor of National Poetry Month – April 2021

if the sky won’t have me originally published in FEED issue 2.2 the rain makes a river of the road rushing rivulets, eddies all aswirl it goes where gravity takes it & gathers in a low point, getting deeper & wider as the storm fails to relent i step into the river, reluctantly at first […]

My Father Wanted Sons

MY FATHER WANTED SONS My feminism began with my father, who wanted sons. Had I been one he’d have named me Paul after my mother’s father, or Bruce, after no one he knew. He must have liked the sound alone, the angry strength of it, harking back to a long-lost Scots-Irish ancestor with an oblique […]

Call Yourself A Writer

originally published in Women Writers, Women’s Books   I recently took part in a virtual author event with two other women writers. Let me say how much I have come to appreciate the magic of Zoom video conferencing, aside from not having a paid account which meant getting dumped off the call after forty minutes. […]

In the Beginning

My first short story was written on brown paper using a second-hand Underwood typewriter I picked up at an antiques store. I felt so writerly, perched on my stool at my kitchen counter, banging away. My husband was studying for the bar exam and had trouble concentrating with the noise I made. Luckily for him, […]

a winter night – chapter one

Chapter One It’s all about family, Angie tells the Greens. An elderly dementia patient can experience significant anxiety on their bad days. Love and support go a long way. The staff at Lindell is wonderful, in fact, they were given an award by the National Alzheimer’s association just last year for their work in memory […]

Revising—A Primer

  First drafts are rotten little beasts. They just don’t behave. They do what they want, and give you lots of lip in the bargain. Revising tames the beast and can, with work, make a beauty. So how do we affect this glorious transformation? First, we drop the hyperbole and focus on three issues: informational […]

My Other Keyboard

Staying home means finding ways to stay happy and sane. Even with cold summer weather, there’s the garden; another book to read; not to mention another one to write. But sometimes I need to get away from pages and screens and stretch my brain another way. So, I practice my scales on the piano. I […]