February 2, 2021

Some words are steep. A cliff edge that dares the speaker to leap. Other words bubble to the surface when you cannot sleep. Or are found pressed like flowers between the pages in memory’s hefty book. Words can be spice or icing, a fortress wall that repels or a sound that entices. Wherever they come… Read More


January 24, 2021

A dusting of snowfall transports me to distant winters and the stillness of early mornings at the edge of a wilderness. The whisper and long shhhhhhhhh of skis on new snow. Impending weather and the stillness between acts. Winter sky that is the blue of yearning. drifting Clear light glints, collects, worries loose long ice… Read More


January 17, 2021

“All my life I’ve looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time.” Ernest Hemingway Brimming with New Year’s resolutions, I find most of them have to with words. I continue to work on a novel that is nearly where it needs to be, on the illustrations and text of a… Read More


January 2, 2021

“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape – the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show.” Andrew Wyeth The wind folded, ice creased leaves. Summer leftovers. Lingering green ripples beneath a spangling of chill stars. I savor this… Read More


October 31, 2020

“Suddenly the day was gone, night came out from under each tree and spread.” Ray Bradbury, The Halloween Tree A month of urgency: the tipping from fall into winter. The waxing of a moon. The chilling of air. I peer through a mental View Master at the vivid memories of Alaskan Halloweens: frosted in snow,… Read More


July 21, 2020

“But nature is always more subtle, more intricate, more elegant than what we are able to imagine.” ― Carl Sagan,The Demon Haunted World, Science as a Candle in the Dark. “Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?” ― Walt Whitman Branches form an arcade. Spruce and… Read More


June 17, 2020

“The words echoed around the cavern and broke through mere rock, so great was the force behind them, melted mere mountains, screamed across the miles.” Terry Pratchett I’ve been watching the news, the weather, the pandemic reports from our nation and the world. However, the Writer Elkhound reminds me there is work to be done.… Read More


April 12, 2020

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE “Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why.” ― Kurt Vonnegut I hope that each and every one of you is safe and taking as many appropriate steps to stay that way as possible. The Steve Miller Band classic reminds us that : “Time… Read More


March 23, 2020

The Writer Elkhound is telling me that spring is on the way. Spring implies hope and a kind of jauntiness, a willingness to let old winter bygones be bygones. However, we are now collectively in that strange position of wondering what is going to happen next. I say strange but really the entirety of human… Read More


February 23, 2020

“Writing floats on a sea of talk.” 1970, James N. Britton, author of Language and Learning In both the revision process and in brainstorming for my next project I pay close attention to dialogue. An antenna for odd bits and barbs of discussion is required. Contemporaneous notes aren’t just for the FBI “Words create sentences;… Read More