A number of decades ago I told my grandma about having written a report about Helen Keller‘s life, and she told me she’d gotten to attend a special church symposium at which Ms. Keller had been the guest of honor. My grandma had been particularly impressed that she’d only had to hand spell the first … Overcoming

This week was as hectic and wonderful as anticipated–it’s just always funny that for as much as we love our visitors, there’s something soothing about being alone again, when we can resume our customary habits and rhythms. Take a breath in silence. Even our dogs seem to be introverts; after several days of dealing with … Loneliness or Freedom

I’m excited: One of the friends I’ve known the longest, and who honestly feels like my big sister, arrives for a short visit tomorrow. In the normal course of things, there have been times when getting the chance to see her has stretched out longer than a decade–mainly because she’s German, and the Atlantic is … The Germans Are Coming

July is always a month of introspection for me–primarily because my birthday is in the middle of it. And this year, it marks the 20th anniversary of when hubs proposed to me. So there were things to celebrate and remember this week. There was also the reminder of our recent losses. Next week marks the … Soul Food

The funny thing about this week’s image is that while it’s true, counting the hours we spend on our various activities sometimes also reveals… there really aren’t enough hours in the day. And sometimes decompression by way of reading through the night is the best way to balance the work-day stressors we deal with. I … Having Time

What makes holiday weekends so interesting is the speed with which they zoom by. I started catching up on some of my NetGalley review books earlier this weekend–and even posted reviews of them over at Goodreads. (If you’re interested, they were for Reincarnation Blues and Marriage Claws.) Part of the reason I went looking for … Best Teacher

I keep getting the question from supportive friends and family: Do you think this week will be less intense? I’m to the point where I think I must’ve leveled up somewhere, because it seems that even weeks that should have been “lighter” end up exhausting. This week I lost another filling and New Dentist says … The Price

I’m not actually much of a Dale Carnegie fan, but something about this quote from him struck me as appropriate for any writer facing edits. I now have all three edits back from Liana, and actually began work on book 1 this week. The good news: Liana reported significant improvement in my writing between books … Making Mistakes