Make Your Own Writing Retreat (or any retreat)

Writing is a challenge for me, and a joy, and darn hard work, and an accomplishment. I've spent a considerable amount of time writing the last few years, writing what I want to write about and getting back to the creative bent of my younger years before a husband, two sons, gainful employment, housework, social … Continue reading Make Your Own Writing Retreat (or any retreat)

Bookstores in August

Leaving any bookstore is hard, especially on a day in August, when the street outside burns and glares, and the books inside are cool and crisp to the touch;" Jane Smiley It is hot! The last several days, our old thermometer, hanging on the lone pole bringing electricity across a pasture or three to my … Continue reading Bookstores in August

Why We Write

The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life. Zadie Smith I have just completed the Pike’s Peak Writer’s Conference in Colorado Springs. No, it was not atop the famous mountain. I am high-altitude and deep drop-offs averse, though admiring the snow-crested Pike’s Peak with my feet firmly … Continue reading Why We Write

Literary Texas: Fred Gipson

Bronze Sculpture of Old Yeller and Travis, in front of the M. Beven Eckert Memorial Library in Mason, Texas. "It was a wild, lonesome place, down in a deep canyon that was bent in the shape of a horseshoe. Tall trees grew down in the canyon and leaned out over a deep hold of clear … Continue reading Literary Texas: Fred Gipson

Literary Texas: KATHERINE ANNE PORTER

For a woman whose famed writing career took her to live in such places as Chicago, New York, Denver, Mexico, and much of Europe, and who rubbed elbows with the likes of Ezra Pound, Hart Crane, Frida Kahlo, Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, and Robert Penn Warren, it is a shock to find Katherine Anne Porter’s … Continue reading Literary Texas: KATHERINE ANNE PORTER