WWII in the American South: Ruth Francisco’s Camp Sunshine
Ruth Francisco’s WWII novel, Camp Sunshine, entertains and informs with clear, specific storytelling. Already a fan of WWII history and fiction, I greatly enjoyed this novel. Francisco animates a rather unattended war detail, an amphibious…
Coffee, Red Wine and Poetry
Although I usually write and read longer, paragraphed forms of writing, a good poem remains for me better than that first coffee in the morning, surpassing even that rich red warm glass of wine in…
At Home in the Wild, Wild West
One of my all-time favorite novels is Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping. I’ve watched this author with great interest since I trekked to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to attend the Western Literature Association Conference in 1989. Having grown…
An Authentic Place in History: More Thoughts on Writing it Then
Writing (historical) fiction–any fiction that isn’t in the “now” — complicates the attempt to connect with the cultures, land and languages of specific locations. As I currently write about European cities and villages in the…
Settling In
It’s a personal best. I’ve now lived at the same address for five and a half years. I know that necessities, moves and changes can surprise a person and I have no exemption from life’s…
Writing it Then
I may be the world’s most delinquent blogger, but I have been writing. This new story is requiring a great deal of research. Thanks to the Internet, that process is sometimes too enjoyable. In my…
A Place Between Pain and Imagination
As I enter my eighth year of chronic pain from untreatable daily migraines, I’ve come to wonder how it affects my ability to be creative and spiritually present in my life. Distraction is often my…
Becoming Conscious
I’ll provide just a short excerpt here, one worthy of meditation. I find that Tom Lynch’s book reads a little like poetry. He slows me down and draws me into his present, his place. “Whether…
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