Books to Cut Their Teeth On

Books to Cut Their Teeth On

    I ended that title with a preposition but it sounds stilted to say, “Books on which to cut their teeth.” Don’t you think? Anyway, sometimes what with all the iPads and tablets and laptops, I fear for the good, old-fashioned books, especially children’s books. That is, I fear until I go into a […]

Five Fabulous Days of Free Reading

Five Fabulous Days of Free Reading

What do you get when you start with an indomitable, adventuresome heroine  who just happens to live in a house with a pretty interesting past, add a deserted church, a legend of an old-time, ruthless outlaw, and plunk the whole thing down in a small, rural town in Oklahoma? You get By the Fright of […]

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields

by John McCrae, May, 1915 In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, […]

I Need to Talk to My Lawyer

I Need to Talk to My Lawyer

    For some reason, my protagonists, Darcy, Flora, Nettie, are always running into problems. Well, let’s be honest – they run into lots of problems and that’s what makes the story. They face danger, death, and desperation with the same fear and trembling that you or I would but, due to their firm resolve to […]

Decoration Day at Caney

Decoration Day at Caney

Each third Sunday in May, people gather at a country cemetery in Cherokee County called Caney. I think of it as our family cemetery because many of my family and relatives are buried there. Of course, many others who are unrelated lie there too. Six generations of my family are there, from Clint who was […]

Abandoned

Abandoned

As I drive along the highways, sometimes I pass  a house that was abandoned long ago. It would look pretty good if somebody took a hand and my fingers itch to buy it, re-furbish it, make it stand proud and solid once again. Just daydreaming, you know, because for a few seconds I see it outside my […]