On this day exactly, almost three decades ago, my Grandma died for no reason. She’d just come through quadruple-bypass surgery when on the 19th at 2 am, she sat up, said, “I can’t breathe,” and died. A few days earlier when I’d first seen her post-surgery, she’d looked vulnerable and scared underneath her oxygen mask…
Category: Personal
As Usual, Politicians Tramp on my Unfolding
It’s been a gale-force day of wind and flying hopes in a week of unfolding possibilities. I’ve been studying the Book of Job in the Bible for the better part of a year now with my Pastor, and partway in, I started toying with the idea of writing my own Outline as the ones suggested…
PAD Challenge: The End
I’m finding it hard to believe that the 30-day poem-a-day challenge by Robert E Brewer of the Writer’s Digest Poetic Asides blog is over. Waaahhhh. And phew. It was easy some days, very difficult others, a total drag on a few with me sitting there fingers poised over keyboard with not a word in my…
Poems Both Inspire and Suck
When I started the poem-a-day challenge, my only concern was whether I’d be able to write a few poems. Thirty days’ worth of poems seemed almost unreachable. Well, I’ve surprised myself and am one day away from achieving this goal! The prompts helped a lot. I doubt I could have come up with that many…
The Twitter Question
What is Twitter? Several media folk, in print or on TV or radio, have attempted to answer that question, and they usually say something typical like, “Posts, also called tweets, can range from the mundane (“Stuck in traffic”) to the heart of the human experience (“Tears. We’re having twin girls!”) There also can be too…
Nibbles of Chocolate
“Never trust anyone who tells you they don’t eat desserts. You know, those people who look at you smugly when you offer your pièce de résistance and say, ‘Oh, I couldn’t; this dessert is too rich!’ We simply respond with, ‘We don’t understand the concept of ‘too rich’ — or ‘too chocolaty’ for that matter.”…
Google Book Settlement: Not Perfect, Lots of Work, But Better than Theft
It’s hard enough trying to earn a living as an author when people so excited over your book loan out their copy to all and sundry rather than suggesting all and sundry buy it, but when Google comes along and posts that book online for all and sundry plus your one buyer to read it…
Next Book for Review: The Almost Archer Sisters
I’m liking this Top Contributors group in the chapters.indigo.ca Community. They offer a select list of free books to members who agree to review them within 2 months. That’s how I ended up reviewing Farley Mowat’s newest book Otherwise. It’s a total win-win-win program. For me the reviewer, the win is a free book, practice…
Agatha Christie Muses on Euthanasia in “Curtain”
I have not read all of Agatha Christie’s Poirot books, but he’s such a timeless character, the series not needing to be read in order, that I recently devoured the very last Poirot book: Curtain. I’ve been reading Christie for as long as I can remember. Well, maybe not since the age of 2, but…