I joined Zazzle in 2009 – not thinking of it as an income-earning side hustle – but to have fun making Christmas cards and coffee mugs with my photographs of sunsets and flowers. I didn’t do much for quite awhile with my New Radiance Zazzle shop so did not keep up with the improvements that took …
The 1st Book in Mark Schweizer’s Liturgical Mystery series is The Alto Wore Tweed. This fun, quirky series is about a small town police chief, Kayden Konig, who doubles as the local church organist and choir master. Hayden has also managed to purchase Raymond Chandler’s ancient typewriter and – in between the sleuthing and musical episodes …
Book 1 of the Peculiar Crimes Unit series, also known as the Bryant and May mysteries, is Full Dark House. The quirkiness starts in book 1 and continues through the entire series. Almost makes you Google to see if there really is a Peculiar Crimes Unit in London, England. I like reading this series in order …
Dental and medical problems often require a soft foods diet. And for vegetarians, this can require a bit of extra research and creativity. Has your doctor or dentist ever told you to eat a “soft foods diet” for a specific dental or health problem? And did you find out, like I did, that most soft food …
This spiny orb weaver spider brought me the message I needed to hear When we moved into our new apartment in April 2013, our next-door neighbor turned out to be a spiny orb weaver spider. At the time, I didn’t know what type of critter she was… I just knew that she was a pretty funky-looking …
My mother, Anne, was the Queen of Courage in my life – a graceful, gracious and tough lady, especially when faced with adversity. The Finns have the perfect word for her kind of toughness – sisu – which describes determination and perseverance when faced with adversity. My mom had sisu up the wazoo. That’s why I …
Following Your Heart to a Life of Joy and Fulfillment In a compilation of 16 essays, Do What You Love by Henri Junttila leads the reader step-by-step to an understanding of what can happen when we begin to be aware of – and listen to – our inner wisdom. This is not a new concept for most of …
Stephen King on the Art, Craft and Business of Writing On Writing is the first Stephen King book I’ve ever read. It’s an excellent memoir of his life as a writer: what got him started, how he built his writing portfolio, and how his stories evolved, through vivid imagination and astute editing. But I’ve never read …
My book review of Dinty W. Moore’s Crafting the Personal Essay In my investigation of “alternative” styles of writing, including everything “flash,” I came across a book edited by Dinty W. Moore called The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Nonfiction. I was impressed with Moore’s introduction to that publication, so I bought Crafting the Personal Essay, which …
My Review of It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure I’m a (pre) baby-boomer and, last spring as I approached my 69th birthday, I got a little nostalgic and started looking up books on memoir writing. Not that I wanted to write an actual book about my life story, …
