Tag Archives: life

This Just In (Elusive World of Poems Edition)

Posted on February 7, 2015 by

Bigger than George Clooney’s marriage. Bigger than my son eating cheese flavored Chex Mix for the first time yesterday (wish it had been broccoli, but at least he’s branching out…double edged sword, this pickiness business), bigger than the beachwalk I recently … Continue reading →

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Step Away From All Chariots (Burning Edition)

Posted on December 2, 2014 by

CONTENT WARNING: Vague to extreme silliness–and back again. Since 1990 I’ve been visiting Ana S. every other month, less when I was younger and single and living on a leaky  sailboat and a semi-working actress with miracle hair never listing towards … Continue reading →

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Screens

Posted on November 15, 2014 by

Staring at  my writing, I heard what I thought was our younger cat pulverizing the bedroom window’s screen, as he does when he’d like to be let inside, despite the little Hobbiton upside-down-U’s we had cut in pertinent doors, just for … Continue reading →

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Relief (Death’s Placards Edition)

Posted on October 17, 2014 by

There are fairly positive placards to be discovered–usually somewhere behind closed eyes–when Death (not waltzes in, there was no waltzing in my dad’s case) knocks down continents to claim, abscond-with, pose in a peasant blouse splotched in redwood forest mulch … Continue reading →

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Big Waves, Big Moon (Aftermath Edition)

Posted on October 5, 2014 by

There was no one in the emptied bedroom except for me. I stared at the almost blank walls and atrocious carpeting, stuck in a grief coma. The front door banged. And everyone arrived, I think all at once, it seemed … Continue reading →

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Partial Poem For The Day

Posted on September 18, 2014 by

If thou art worn and hard beset with sorrows that thou wouldst forget, If thou would read a lesson that would keep thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep Go to the Woods and Hills! No tears Dim … Continue reading →

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Overcast In The Valley

Posted on August 19, 2014 by

Craving a view, I rode the escalator to the 3rd and final floor of that Macy’s and speculated on valley through tinted windows grand enough for a museum. No thunderheads. Not the merest ribbon of blue sky. No sun. Mounds … Continue reading →

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Never Fails

Posted on June 27, 2014 by

Text conversation with my writing mentor as I attempted to send her crucial re-written novel pages before her plane took off, pages I was anxious for her input on so that I could meet a writing deadline ASAP, pages she … Continue reading →

Posted in Children's Books, Fiction, middle grade, Steps In Promotion, Writer's Angst | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Mornings Become Them (Birds Edition)

Posted on June 20, 2014 by

615am–I get out of bed to let the dog outside and get back in bed forgetting to let the dog back in and he barks and I shoot out of bed not wanting the dog to wake the first grader … Continue reading →

Posted in Adult writing, Avoiding My Writing, books, Children's Books, dog, Faction, Fiction, middle grade, Parakeet, Pets, Poetry, Writer's Angst, Writing, Writing Progress, WTF | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sad Santa Barbara

Posted on May 27, 2014 by

My son and I were visiting his cousins when it happened. My husband, at home in Los Angeles, called me early Saturday morning with the news. I felt the same shock thousands of others were feeling in my town. The sun … Continue reading →

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I-5 Pretty

Posted on April 24, 2014 by

In a previous post I regaled our drive from Los Angeles to parts further Northeast known as Tracy, Stockton and Sacramento. Namely, that interminable length from the end of the grapevine to whatever that KABOOM exit is that has Corral in … Continue reading →

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Spring Break Snoozing (Wide Awake Edition)

Posted on April 18, 2014 by

During this luscious week of no school for the Kindergartner, we snooze well. Except when we are awakened from chasm-sleep somewhere between 2a.m. and maybe 4:30a.m.—after the bars have closed, but before the rooster across the alley busts its lungs—after we’ve … Continue reading →

Posted in Adult writing, Avoiding My Writing, books, Children's Books, dog, Faction, Fiction, Me and Us, middle grade, Pets, Poetry, Writer's Angst, Writing, Writing Progress, WTF | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Discoveries (Balancing Edition)

Posted on March 26, 2014 by

The huge benefit of being thrown by a horse and not being able to exercise for over a week or lie down on the bed without screaming in pain or do anything in between carrying on as a mother except … Continue reading →

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Spacks Street

Posted on March 10, 2014 by

Sunday, a memorial for the poet Barry Spacks took place. I arrived at Santa Barbara’s Museum of Contemporary Arts 10 minutes early for the service to find it mobbed. Wonderful! Seats went fast. I sat next to the poet Dan … Continue reading →

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Farewell February

Posted on February 28, 2014 by

Because it’s my birthday month, because it’s not only a pink month, or red for hearts, or purple for amethyst (birthstone), because I had a milestone birthday and went all crazy in the head and panicky in the days (who … Continue reading →

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Double Rainbow (Rainy Day Edition)

Posted on February 7, 2014 by

Not long ago a man left a nasty little comment in my comments section calling my blog piece sophomoric and trite and something else I can’t remember and why this person was so unevolved as to blog-roam and drop his … Continue reading →

Posted in books, Children's Books, dog, Fiction, Poetry, poetry reading, Writer's Angst, Writing, Writing Progress, WTF | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Bathroom Reading (Scouring Edition)

Posted on December 4, 2013 by

While holiday cleansing the bathroom, on my knees scrubbing corners usually in my blind spot, I glance up and notice books also, apparently, usually in my blind spot. I have no idea when Dylan Thomas arrived. Definitely wasn’t me who … Continue reading →

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Food Glorious Food

Posted on November 13, 2013 by

Speaking of bon bons, I think I’ll switch to madeleines. But stick with coffee, not tea. For now. Coffee served in a teacup? Even better. The Telegraph is featuring 10 Great Meals in Literature. A fun little slideshow. Especially the Dickens … Continue reading →

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The Truth Is…(Maintenance Edition)

Posted on October 29, 2013 by

The truth is, I’m way too busy to blog—sprawling on the couch eating bonbons takes up a lot of time. And let me make this extremely clear: NOT milk chocolate bonbons with cherries tucked inside them. If I was even … Continue reading →

Posted in Children's Books, Fiction, middle grade, Pets, Poetry, To Explain, Writer's Angst, Writing, Writing Progress | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Mini-Break 1: Sun Rays In Fog

Posted on July 8, 2013 by

“Brooklyn!” the mom on the Los Angeles playground called out to her child swinging from primary colored monkey bars. “Careful!” “Chicago!” a nearby dad called to his daughter. “Hold London’s hand, please!” “China and Thai,” cried another parent. “Play nicely!” … Continue reading →

Posted in books, Children's Books, Fiction, ocean related, Poetry, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Angst (Cheese & Strawberries Edition)

Posted on July 3, 2013 by

When you man your bookshelves for hours, reading first pages because you are maddened by your own first pages and can’t recall how to begin a story or a novel without every palabra jumping out at you with a buzzer sound … Continue reading →

Posted in Avoiding My Writing, Children's Books, Fiction, Me and Us, middle grade, Poetry, Writer's Angst, Writing, WTF | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Heat Talk (107 Degrees Edition)

Posted on June 30, 2013 by

Everyone in prone positions, some bodies perpendicular to others, some just out there on their own, spanning that one corner of living room rug, some sprawling underneath the chaise longue I try to endure as my son makes mud pies, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Avoiding My Writing, Children's Books, dog, Faction, Fiction, Writer's Angst, Writing, WTF | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

O Hemet!

Posted on May 25, 2013 by

Tomorrow we leave for Hemet for the weekend. Luckily our part of the world seems to be entering a brief cooling trend. Hemet is notoriously hot. And, as if perversely, when waving goodbye to the sun across the flats, or … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Poetry, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Quote For The Weekend (Seriously Late Edition w/Rabbits)

Posted on May 20, 2013 by

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. —Anne Frank We tend to rotate which charities we give to monthly. Save The Children often tops the list. Also the Mae Tao … Continue reading →

Posted in Avoiding My Writing, dog, Fiction, fish, Parakeet, Pets, Poetry, Writer quotes, Writing, WTF | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Quote For The Weekend (Unchaste Edition)

Posted on March 22, 2013 by

True poets should be chaste, I know, but wherefore should their lines be so? —Catullus (Gaius Valerius, of course…) Of course he loved Lesbia! Sheesh. Get over it. Hopefully he ultimately got over it, IF he wasn’t 30 when he … Continue reading →

Posted in Adult writing, Avoiding My Writing, Fiction, Poetry, poetry reading, Writer quotes, Writer's Angst, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments