I took pictures of sunflowers from a train window. I was in Bulgaria, and it was 1994. The train cut through a sea of sunflowers, and I'd never seen anything like it. The pictures were blurry, of course. A moving train makes for unsteady photographs. This picture was taken on the side of the road …
A day late, but Happy Imbolc! Perhaps your corner of the world is like mine right now--cold and coated with ice. Spring will arrive eventually, of course, but in the meantime, there's beauty in the snowy world. There's also dangers for the unhoused and all who must venture on the roads or who can't heat …
In the New Year I haven't made any resolutions. I happened to walk more recently than I usually do, but I started a few months ago walking regularly again, so this was just extra. I'd like to make it a normal thing, and as I pondered how to do so, my ratty over 15-year-old walking …
Just before I sat down to write this, I saw the headlines about Betty White. I remember watching her in The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Then I loved her in The Golden Girls. She had a long and magnificent life. Of course, we all have to bow out sometime, and though it's a shame she …
What are you looking forward to? I've had a hard time thinking of a topic that isn't gloomy, but I don't want to focus on gloom today. The Christmas lights are on. This year our tree is made of books, which are themselves made out of trees, so we're not far from tradition. Putting a …
I found myself sitting in the darkness of an abandoned church looking up at the moon alongside a best friend. The last month of the year has spilled out before us. We are tired but glad to be together in the magic quiet of a place we aren't supposed to be. When you look back …
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 …
The other day in a conversation with other writers, I said something about wanting likable characters. Seriously. If I'm taking time out of my life to spend with people, fictional or otherwise, then I want to like them. This may sound hopelessly uncool or naïve or whatever, but as the conversation continued, I realized that …
I've been obsessing over this chicken. Three evenings in a row this chicken made herself at home on this brick ledge near out front door. Why? Well, she has to be somewhere, right? Who knows what goes on the mind of a chicken looking for shelter. The spot she chose seemed fairly good. Not on …
I'm usually torn between being inspired and discouraged. When I was a kid, my mother believed in being honest. Perhaps her own mother didn't outright lie, but she certainly wasn't forthcoming. And after the divorce my mom did her best not to speak ill of my dad, but she did in a moment of anger …
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 