White dimity curtains—with a windowpane pattern, of course—dance in the breeze at windows sporting red geraniums in boxes. At an antique spinet desk, a woman sits, her fingers flying over the keys of a Remington Rand typewriter—custom painted aqua, of course. And as her fingers do their dances, Continue Reading
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The Perplexing Question of the Doors: How One Life Changed
“You wake up in an unfamiliar room. Picture it—is it a living room? A bedroom? A kitchen?” The class eyed one another with a predictable combination of confusion and annoyance. Seated square in the middle of the room, Lance Pengully kept his expression bored— a move of self-preservation. But Continue Reading
The Top 4 Things That Recharge Me When I Crash
“She’s a writing machine.” If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times. There’s this perception among my writerly friends that I just churn out thousands of words, one after the other--and nothing else. Just eat, sleep, breathe, and write (and as to sleeping, I apparently don't do much Continue Reading
The 8 Worst Words of Homeschooling Advice & How to Avoid Them
August. The final month (for practical purposes) of those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer. Popsicles, dashes to the pool, watermelon—lots of delicious watermelon while it lasts. And then it hits: back to school time. But with it is back to school season with those long lists of school supplies, Continue Reading
A Day in the Life of a Weird Writer Living in a Dream World
The scent of coffee wafts from the kitchen, through the living room, across the three-foot square we call a hallway, under my door, into my fan, and blows the homey perfume into my dreams and wakes me. Stretches, a sigh. I peel off my eye mask and blink. Flinging back the covers, I jerk open the Continue Reading
Help Me? 5 Things I Want to Know about YOU
"... and then we went to this little cafe--no, wait. First, we stopped at one of those roadside gift shops? Oh, it was all just junk. But, we were good tourists and..." You know the person. You've been there. Everyone is discussing the goofiest souvenir they ever purchased when someone pipes Continue Reading
What Do Arrows & a Sewing Lesson Have to Do With Murder?
A swath of fabric cut across my bedroom at an odd angle, but that angle ensured that I could stretch it all out. With painstaking precision, I pinned every last piece to the fabric, disgusted at the enormous waste stretching out before me. The pattern called for three and a half yards. I’d Continue Reading
I’m Sick to Death of Opinions, but Not Why You Think
Our world is flooded with opinions. From the best tacos (Mrs. Santos', naturally) or burgers (In-n-Out, duh!) to movies, books, products, and obviously, politics. Gotta have those political opinions. Unless yours differs from mine, of course. But I'll get to that in a minute. We even baptize Continue Reading
My Super Secret Solution to the Aging Problem
A trail of cigarette smoke wisps up and toward the window. Mom laughs at something my Aunt Susan says. And, if I’m honest with myself, probably takes a sip of coffee, too. Year? Oh, probably 1982. Place? Ventura, California—at “John&Gloria’s” house. That’s how I pictured their names in my Continue Reading
The Pitfalls of Being Real and How to Combat Them
It happened again. Another person asked how homeschooled kids can possibly hope to cope in the "real world." I wanted to bang my head. Because if you pulled a publicly educated kid from the Bronx and set that kid in rural Iowa, he'd be a mess. He wouldn't know how to deal with that real world. Continue Reading
My Top 10 Anticipated Summer Reads & Why They Made the Cut
Every day it seems—twice a day, even. The post appears on Facebook, Instagram, even Twitter. “Show us your TBR pile!” Also, for those who've managed to avoid all that internet speak, “TBR,” just means to be read. Beautiful pictures of stacks of books… They make my heart sing. Oh, they do. But they Continue Reading
What Is the Best way to Choose a Genre?
“Oh! You’re a writer? Cool. What genre?” *insert blank look* And this is where I usually reply with something like, “Um, the answer to that question is kind of a novel in itself.” For a while, I just said, “Christian Fiction.” But who knew that opened up one confusing can of worms? I Continue Reading
