For most of my adult life, I've had a love-hate relationship with food. Love because food is awesome. Hate because, awesome or not, it sticks around a lot longer than I want it to. Like anything else, food was much simpler when I was a kid. I ate whatever my mom fixed, and if I was … Continue reading Are you going to kill me?
There was a time in my life when biking was very simple. I ran outside, picked up my bike, and peddled like the devil. I didn't have a destination. Or a master purpose. I just peddled. Growing up, we lived next door to a church. It had a giant gravel parking lot that made the … Continue reading Ready…
Once again, Ylva Publishing is donating the proceeds from our Christmas anthology, Do You Feel What I Feel, to two charities, one based in Europe and another here in the US. YouthCare Seattle is the parent organization that funds Isis House, a queer youth homeless shelter. Until very recently, they were the only such organization … Continue reading Do You Feel What I Feel
Music has the power to inspire all areas of our lives. For me, music can evoke an emotion, resurrect old memories, and inspire new stories. For today's writing exercise I'm looking at an old favorite, "Must Be Crazy for Me," by Melissa Etheridge. And to add an extra layer of fun to the experience, I'm … Continue reading Writing Exercise – Must Be Crazy For Me
Just Physical by Jae After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, twenty-five-year-old Jill Corrigan takes herself off the romantic market. Not wanting to become a burden to a potential partner, she focuses on her career as an actress instead. On the set of a disaster movie, she meets stunt woman Kristine “Crash” Patterson, whose easy smile … Continue reading Ylva Publishing – December New Releases
Remember that feeling of rushing down a hill, hands in the air, hair flying back, feet off the pedals because they're turning to fast to keep up? I was the youngest of four kids in a single-mom family, growing up in the seventies. That meant no helmet and hand-me-down bikes that were probably too big … Continue reading The Hills are Alive (and I’m pretty sure they hate me)
Some women love books. Some love to read them. Some love to write them. There are other women, I'm sure, who don't love either. But I try to pretend they don't exist because thinking about a world without words...well, that makes me far too sad. Anytime someone so much as hints at maybe, possibly mentioning … Continue reading For the love of “book people”
As promised, here's my weekly writing exercise. Today, I turned to a book that has been on our shelf for a while: 642 Things to Write About (Young Writer's Edition) by 826 Valencia. As implied by the title, it's a book of prompts that's meant for kids. The cool thing about kids? They're usually way … Continue reading Writing Exercise – Message in a Bottle
Today, Lily and I hit the trail for a quick ride. We went just far enough for justify a mid-ride snack for Lily. And, yes, that means I got a treat, too. We had split a red Gatorade and bought a pepperoni stick for each of us. Round trip, we did about six miles. And, … Continue reading Wearing Off the New
The truth about some of the most beloved American holidays is enough to make a child weep. I know this because my youngest daughter just came to me in tears. "Mommy ruined Thanksgiving!" You see, they had a Thanksgiving pageant at school earlier this week, and Lily and her friends put on a small Thanksgiving … Continue reading Thanksgiving or Giving Thanks?