Thrill of the Hunt
August 10th is National Garage Sale Day and August 17th is National Thrift Shop Day. Besides being fun, “thrifting” helps reduce waste that normally would end up in our landfills, so I’m all for it. And I’m not alone. According…
Category Inspiration
Tales From the Old Tamarack Tree
The sun drops low in the sky over the lake and casts a golden glow on my trunk and limbs. They are brittle now. My sap has stopped flowing, and the end is near. The years of harsh northern Wisconsin…
Start with a Story
My phone interview with Jerry Apps last week was not only enlightening, but emotional. The 87-year-old is the author of over 40 books. He’s also the amazing but humble star in many PBS documentaries about the land and farming in…
Colorful, Colloquial Characters (Rated PG for Earthiness)
As a child, and okay, as an adult, too, I happily read Robert Newton Peck’s Soup books. His ability to describe his characters such as Soup’s nemesis, Janice Riker, is peachy. “She was the biggest and strongest and meanest kid…
Living Other Lives
The beauty of the world of literature is that it allows you to live other lives. I’ve been an attractive 17-year-old red-head whose many adventures include solving the mystery of who’s trying to harm Fortune, the racehorse on my aunt’s…
The Artist’s Spirit
Greetings fellow story lovers, A friend who wrote and illustrated children’s books, Marsha Dunlap, died after a long battle with cancer. One of the first times I met Marsha was during a blinding snowstorm. A small group of us had…
Silent Rock
Greetings fellow story lovers, I felt it again yesterday while hiking–the heartbeat of the woods. Does the pulse I feel come from all the creatures watching as I walk down their sun-dappled trails, or from all the past creatures that…
Inspiration
Inspiration Greetings fellow story lovers, What gets your creative juices flowing? Where are you when inspiration strikes? Among my favorite times in life are those moments when I’m driving along on a long quiet stretch of highway and my mind…
What If . . .
Greetings fellow story lovers, What if . . . are magic words to writers and story tellers. What if an animal attraction with over 100 live reptiles including crocodiles, unusual albino iguanos, and the world’s largest snake caught on fire?…
Passion
Greetings fellow story lovers, What makes you grind your teeth, giggle like a hyper kid, or hiss like a panther? What makes the hair on the back of your neck tingle, your fingers dig at your scalp, or your throat…