It all starts with a trip!  This is near the Gold Bug Mine in California.  It is a mine that has been sealed up because it is not safe anymore.  Probably wasn’t too safe when it was getting dug either.  I wonder how much gold they found here?  What if . . . ? And the story [...]

‘Tis the season for lists. So, in this spirit I offer you one of my own: Read-aloud books that fit the season. These are books that our family has read to each other over the years and have been perennial pleasers. This isn’t a comprehensive list of books for the season, not even the best [...]

Today, Boni Ashburn (author of Hush, Little Dragon) blogged about “Great Gifts for Word Lovers”. She lists some terrific books for anyone who loves words, and I imagine most writers out there are word-addicts, as I am! Picture book writers, especially, are always looking for The Perfect Word. I’m joined at the spine to my [...]

I once had the good fortune to open a letter and discover that award winning author, Jerry Spinelli, was to be my mentor at a writer’s conference. I was thrilled- certain that I had been assigned this amazing author because of my own literary brilliance and couldn’t wait to hear his praise of the first ten [...]

When my kids were small, and each evening required several bedtime stories, a perennial favorite was Steven Kellog’s Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett. She could outrun, out swim, out arm wrestle, out tug-o-war any man in creation. She chopped trees with her teeth, tamed eagles, skinned bears, whipped up tornadoes, and out wrestled the [...]

A cousin recently shared with me a literary treasure: the complete archives of The Weekly, a newspaper her mother Flora and a friend wrote and distributed from September through November of 1936. Flora and Mary were the sole proprietors, reporters, editors, and publishers.  Their writing is honest, straightforward and completely charming.   Both were about [...]