When was the first ghost? If a ghost appears in a house and no one is there to see it, is it still a ghost? Do ghosts sleep? Why are there no ghost dinosaurs? . . . Or are there? Do ghosts ever hang out in a room and watch whatever movie the living turn …
Did you know that you don't need to be overwhelmed, you can just be whelmed? No, that's not, apparently, an improvement. They mean the same thing. But to say one is whelmed doesn't have the same ring to it, does it? Over adds that oomph the feeling needs to truly express itself. Recently I watched …
I had this vague idea that zines started in the 70s, but no. They started in the 1930s. Was there a zine scene in my hometown in the 1980s? I've no idea. I wasn't cool and I didn't hang out in cool places where such things existed. When did I first learn about zines? I …
We know have Christmas lights strung in four rooms in our house. Yes, I'm one of those people. When I plug in the strand of lights in my office, the space changes. Now it feels like The. Creative. Space. It doesn't feel like news to say light affects us. Many of us struggle in seasons …
The other in my writing class, we were talking about awkward sentences, redundancies, and wordiness. Students tend to write things like, "the daughter of my sister" when perhaps they could've written "my sister's daughter" or even "my niece." Not to mention the number of times they'll write "always" or "very" on one page. A few …
Do you like memoirs? Have a fav? I don't, as a rule, search them out, but sometimes I pick one up. Either the author is writing about their life through a topic that interests me (Black Milk by Elif Shafak, for instance, is about the balancing of becoming a mother and her writing life) or …
I had time to write, but I did some reading instead. I came across this article in Texas Monthly about Colleen Hoover. (Please note, you get only one or two free reads from Texas Monthly, so click accordingly. I think it is worth the read, especially if you're an author.) I have never read a …
Most evenings, Dad and I watch Rawhide or Matlock or Perry Mason. Sometimes we watch Have Gun-Will Travel, Bat Masterson, or The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. The production and writing qualities and the historical accuracy vary greatly, but I get sucked in regardless of how much I don't really like westerns (I do, …
I'm thinking of making more art prints! Want to pick three favorites? Leave a comment. If you click on the images, you can see their titles. The winners will eventually be sent to Patrons and sold on Etsy. Thanks for your help!
I lay down on the grass at the park. I was far from alone. There was my husband. There were my students. There were strangers. We were all together in the park, looking up at a cloudy sky, waiting and hoping. Down the street other people did the same. On campus my son was on …
Marta Bacon 