In 2008, a tiny piece I wrote about my love for The Wizard of Oz was published on NPR's In Character series. I still love children's stories, though in a different way and for different reasons. Some adults aren't interested in anything for children. You can find a number of essays lamenting adults reading YA, …
'Tis my favorite month of the year! I say that even though I dislike horror and being scared. To welcome in the season, here are a few witchy things I've listened to or watched over the last year or two. Take as you will! First, a video about the Wicked Witch of the West, who …
Story-a-Day September has begun. Usually I have a theme or plan, and the plan this time around was going to be working my princess detective novel. And I am working on that, but when I sat down on September first, an image of a wolf on a hill popped up on my head. So I …
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, …
The Olympics are over and I didn't actually watch them. But one story I followed from those few weeks was the story of the gymnast experience of the twisties. I hadn't known that was a thing. But of course it was a thing. Divers can become confused about which way is up and which way …
My mom told me I learned my color wheel before I learned my ABCs. It surprises me now how I struggle to use color in my work now. In a high school art class, we had to draw a scene and then paint it. I loved my pencil drawing. It was of my best friend …
I've been making handmade books, and most of them have had simple covers with the design that happens to be on the paper. Now I want to make covers of collage or with objects. And I want to clear out a lot of items I've accumulated over the years by making things. They won't have …
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 …
Halloween It's hard to believe the friend I'm talking to in this photo is dead. She was 11 years younger than me. When she reached out to me several years ago after her cancer diagnosis, she took comfort in knowing that I'd had cancer and was doing well. I offered assurances her in her first …
I promised something creative everyday, and today that something is for death. Perhaps you haven't experienced this yet (and I love if you haven't), but I know many have had that moment when they walk outside, the world rushes about its business, and you want to shout, "Hey! But someone is missing today! How can …
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 