Tag Archives: life
Heat
I don’t know about your environs, but ours will be blessed with consecutive days of triple digit heat, again, later this week. It’s helpful for my psyche and staving off writer’s block to remember that last year at this time … Continue reading
School Days 2020
Bring your pet to school day for my son’s English class. It is this mother’s opinion that my tween’s middle school is rockin’ this distance learning business. #englishteachersrule
It Happens
Black Lives Matter
6/5/2020 Last Wednesday rumors circulated via my Next Door app and local FB community pages that Valencia was going to be overrun by thugs from nearby Palmdale intent on looting our stores, destroying our mall, and terrorizing neighborhoods. No one … Continue reading
Spring Heralds
“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” ― Anne Bradstreet
April Poem
I post this poem every spring. From my chapbook Nightmares With Moons (Pudding House Press). Happy Stay-At-Home-Wednesday. Full Flower Moon May (mostly), the petticoat swirl of rising pink meadow, petite showers, buds. I say: rose, peony, phlox. And I say: petal- shorn, … Continue reading
Easter Sunday
Wishing you a poetic day.
Never Forget (Fav Coffee Mug Edition)
Yours in coping, PB
STARTING NOW
I mean, why wait? W.R.I.T.I.N.G.
Happy Rainsgiving
‘Tis the season to remember how to get cozy and not because the A/C is running. At least–I hope ’tis… Happy Thanksgiving Holiday
Poem
Flawbag There is the girl, woman this 3:02p.m., midway on twinkling crosswalk. Her voice thumps her hip, tucked in a dropped- bottom bag working on its 5th shoulder strap. Walk-lope: she doesn’t like you, though it is doubtful she could … Continue reading
O First Pages (Retreat Edition)
The last event of the SCBWI Working Writer’s retreat consisted of 3 minutes allotted to each attendee to read aloud their first page of a manuscript. Professional critique was squeezed into that 3 minutes from a panel comprised of 4 … Continue reading
Now Reading
Her latest Gamache installment has come along at the perfect time. Because after a death in the family, what better reading than a crime thriller as I deal with a myriad of petty family crimes in the wake of tragedy? … Continue reading
Death Poem
Orphan We are the children. Cream to curse. In- structed: here ya go, go, here ya, here ya go, go, go fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck Did you say that? Well. I did. Finally: where were you … Continue reading
Washing My Inheritance
My then soon-to-be-husband stated (3rd date, my Echo Park, Los Angeles apartment with the spectacular view I couldn’t afford without working 2 jobs, the last apartment I ever lived in alone): You have a lot of rocks. My Echo Park … Continue reading
Peace To You
When I was seven to ten years old, I begged her to let me stay home from school so I could hang out with her, picnic in the park behind our house (she made cheese and tomato sandwiches), just be … Continue reading
BACK TO SCHOOL
I sing-songed like Snow White as I whisked open his curtains. I raved about the smell of cinnamon pancakes filling the house as I jumped on his bed. I hit him with a pillow as I encouraged him to seize … Continue reading
Rain Or Shine: Strike On
A couple of weeks before the strike, I was John Snow: I knew nothing. There are always excuses I can credit a busy mother. But everyone is busy. I simply wish I had paid any attention to events leading up … Continue reading
~2019~
May the year be merry and bright and productive. And may I acquire a new laptop. And definitely completion of the current novel and definitely long before the end of this shiny new year. And may I continue to exercise … Continue reading
Hunting
230am, the dog’s nose a wet Q-tip on my ear, his drunk-carny’s breath. I rise, stumble to the patio door, let him out. Waiting, I realize my right foot is wet. I panic: blood? Cat vomit. I stumble to the … Continue reading
O Europa!
Volunteering at my son’s school library means I get to help kids discover books they didn’t even know they wanted to read–and also means I can check out books without exceeding my son’s 5th grade (3 books per student) limit. … Continue reading
REVISION
I finished my novel. All the writing, beach walks, and kitten-breaks seem to have paid off. I’m finished. Let the revising begin. Actually I’ve been revising all along. I adopted a habit of backing up a few chapters, reading/revising them … Continue reading
Lost Time
Yesterday I was driving home from Trader Joe’s, my mind deep in my novel. I am SO close to finishing it I can see the end and I was excited about what I was seeing. Then a street sign yanked … Continue reading
How It Is
There is only finishing my middle-grade novel. Getting my son to school, helping him finish his science project and get it to school; hurtling towards summer–school, science projects, math tests, helping at the school book fair, end-of-school-year requirements and the … Continue reading
