'Tis the spookiest weekend of the year! This morning I listened to some pieces on fear. We seem to live a lot in fear these days. Haven't we always? One of the segments talked about why we are attracted to horror. Google the question if you want! You'll find plenty of articles. I'm someone not …
I've finished NaNoWriMo! I have not, of course, finished the novel. It's a massive rewrite of a previous NaNo novel. I scrapped half the plot and took the story in a new direction. Now there's a ghost! No, it's not a horror story. The ghost has a lively (lively?) personality, but the story is really …
Things are changing in our house. (Though life is change, so when are things not changing?) I'll be starting my second job (losing time I've spent writing and making things) and our teen has started college. Then there are the outside forces, the Delta variant and the changes to our climate and whatever-in-the-all-the-levels-of-hell our rage-filled, …
I can't remember how much before my mother's death, I thought about death and dying. It's true that my mom had had a boyfriend who was a professor of death and dying. My 13-year-old self was very impressed by this. Just as I was impressed that my mom spent a night in a cemetery with …
A home that caught my eye in Salem. Definitely not the house I grew up in. In grad school, I had a final exam with a one word question. We had to write about this one word. (For the life of me, I can't remember how much time were were given, but it was at …
I love the lake. The lake doesn't love me. Dad bought his house on the lake before I was born. The lake lives in my earliest memories. In childhood, dad would make me volcanoes in the beach sand. We had our best conversations on the dock. As a teen, I sat on the dock to …
The Civil War brought us death on a massive scale, and I've read how people turned to seances. First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln held seances too. The Spiritualist movement was already in place by the time of the war, but certainly so much violent death spurred more people to try so-called spirit circles. (Aaron Mahnke's …
Continue reading There’s a Gaping Hole in the Livingroom Wall
(where I grew up ~ starlight added) It's the most contemplative time of year. (Well, not for everyone. Plenty of people may find other points in time more suited for contemplation. Some people seem to have no ability to contemplate much of anything least of all their place in the world and the hardships of …
Last year, I wrote this to welcome our travel into the New Year. Hardly seems adequate looking back. The Winter Solstice brings us the longest night of the year. It carries us into winter, a time to burrow in and reflect on where we've been, what we've done, and what the future may hold. And …
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 