Sog and the Fly

It Happened One Summer by Blanche Day Manos In my neck of the woods, everything gets ornery in the summertime. Critters, humans, even bugs are easy riled. There’s nothing like the heat of a white-orange sun blazing down from a copper-colored sky to make varmints out of the most lowly of pesky, everyday things, particularly […]

Edging into Fall

Edging into Fall

Would you believe it’s 55 degrees this morning? Yesterday morning, very early, the thermometer registered 49. It never fails to surprise me, each fall, when the earth begins to cool toward winter. Yet, the same thing happens year after year, and to me, it’s reassuring. Yesterday morning, when I poured water into my coffee maker, […]

Ah, Those Summer Memories!

Ah, Those Summer Memories!

Those summer memories of childhood! I remember running barefoot through tickly grass, walking through dusty places and feeling warm dust puff up between my toes, dancing quickly over rocks that were too hot for lingering.  Summer was hot, but I didn’t mind. It was the way summer was supposed to be. Of course, if we had […]

A Moonlight Surprise

A Moonlight Surprise

Slipping from tree to bush, I walked as softly as my boots allowed. It’s funny how weird things looked at night, how lonely and hushed, as if the familiar landscape were an alien planet with no life on it except mine. I stopped in the shadow of the farmhouse and listened; no sound of pickax […]

A Wild and Wicked Month

  July is a hot, dry month. Right? Wrong! Or, at least, that certain July in Levi, Oklahoma isn’t hot and dry, but it is murderous. It is also the rainiest month that the good citizens of the small Oklahoma town can ever remember. For Darcy and Flora, it is one of the most dangerous.  […]

What a Character!

What a Character!

What do you like most about the books you enjoy? Is it the setting, that intriguing plot, or, is it the characters?  Thinking back on my favorite stories, I remember the characters. When I read each of the books, those characters became alive to me. They weren’t words on paper; they were living, moving, thinking, […]