Dream Closet (Fiction)

This past weekend, I attended the annual Wyoming Writers conference in Dubois. I returned, inspired, but not to write anything I can quickly post today, so here’s an oldie but a goody from two years ago. Enjoy, and have a great day.

Abbie's Corner of the World

Monique let herself into David’s apartment with the key she still had, although they broke up the week before. She patted her stomach, as a wave of doubt hit her. Yes, she was doing the right thing, she told herself. David was the father of her child, but he was too down to earth. An accountant who made a lot of money, he would probably expect her to be a stay at home wife and mother.

On the other hand, Mike was cool, a singer/songwriter with a band who hoped to reach the top of the bestseller list one day. If she married him, he wouldn’t care what she did as long as she made him happy in bed. If he recorded an album and went on tour, she could travel with him, and that would be fun for her and the baby. Now, all she needed to do was…

View original post 1,090 more words

POSITIVE PEBBLE CHALLENGE! ! !

In a world of negativity, let’s see if we can think of something positive to share. Please feel free to comment here and/or on Patty’s blog. Let’s stop thinking negative, even if only for a moment.

Campbells World

POSITIVE PEBBLE CHALLENGE!
The world is filled with a lot of negativity.
A lot of people deal with depression, anger, and rejection.
I do too.
But.
I have decided that for the next 24 hours I am going to try to spread some positivity.
I challenge each one reading this to comment and share one positive thing no matter what it is if it makes you feel good share it.
I also challenge each one of you to share this and invite and encourage your friends to do the same.
Remember, one pebble tossed into a pond makes a ripple.
If enough people toss enough positive pebbles we can make a wave.
Social media spreads a lot of struggle and strife.
Help me stop the madness one positive pebble at a time.

View original post

Friday Favorites #2

Today, it got up to 88 degrees, so snow is the farthest thing from my mind, but I thought you would like this post from fellow author Lynda Lambert. You may be interested in purchasing her latest chapbook. Enjoy!

SCAN

Post #

Friday Favorites Series, #2

 IS SNOW on your MIND today?

After a long winter  

I’d say, Probably not!   

HOWEVER…

My FRIDAY FAVORITE REFLECTION

for this week is

SNOW

SNOW is in my  personal weather forecast for

3 reasons:

#1   My new CHAPBOOK is now completed and I am sending it out to potential publishers & editors.  The title of my chapbook is “first snow,” a collection of wintry-themed poems.

#2

My new

Voice Recorder is a SNOWBALL, BLUE iCE.  Now I can record my own voice reading my poems and post those recordings on my Author’s blog.  What fun!   Visit Walking by Inner Vision Blog – click here!

#3      I am getting a new hand-held CCTV that is CALLED … the SNOW.  I visited the LOW VISION SPECIALIST yesterday. This piece of equipment will be coming to me  soon.    I have profound…

View original post 84 more words

Tradition and Nostalgia Also Take the Checkered Flag at the Indy 500

I’m doing something a little different today instead of a book feature. If you’re a fan of car racing, or if you’re from Indiana, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this post in which Alice discusses the Indianapolis 500 and provides links to several renditions of “Back Home Again in Indiana.” I’ll definitely be back next Thursday with a review of a collection of essays that provide audio insight, so stay tuned.

alice13wordwalk

Tradition and Nostalgia Also Take the Checkered Flag at the Indy 500

by Alice Jane-Marie Massa

NOTE:  At the end of this post, you will find a link for the song “Back Home Again in Indiana.”

Listening to the pre-race ceremonies of the Indianapolis 500 each May on the Indy Car Radio Network and on the television broadcast does bring forth a few nostalgic tears and does “make me long for my Indiana home,” as the lyrics of “Back Home Again in Indiana” conclude.  Over 101 years ago, James Frederick Hanley (born in Rensselaer, Indiana, in 1892)composed the music while Ballard MacDonald (born in Portland, Oregon, in 1882) wrote the lyrics for the 1918 hit song “Back Home Again in Indiana,” which was first published in January of 1917.

Although this 1918 hit was first performed at the Indianapolis 500 by a trackside brass band in 1919, the first time…

View original post 1,278 more words

Memoir Offers Insights on Death

First of all, let me apologize for the premateur release of this week’s Saturday song feature. I’ve had a week of technological bloopers. Actually, I think this was my brain getting dates mixed up when scheduling that post. Oh well, onward and upward.

Since I haven’t had time to read any books lately, here’s a re-run of an oldie but a goody. Enjoy!

Abbie's Corner of the World

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: and Other Lessons from the Crematory

By Caitlin Doughty

Copyright 2014.

This author, with a degree in medieval history, a star of the online video series, Ask a Mortician, shares the first few years of her experiences working in the death industry. She starts with her first job as a crematory operator in San Francisco, explaining in detail the cremation process and how she was the one to do the actual cremating. She also describes going with another employee to collect bodies and observing the embalming process.

She then talks about how she eventually moved to Los Angeles where she attended a mortician school and became certified. After another job collecting bodies, she gained employment as a funeral director. She also shares her disillusionment with embalming and other techniques used to make a corpse look natural before a viewing. She suggests taking responsibility for…

View original post 599 more words

What Is the Name for a Group of Poets?

Alice is a delightful poet, and I participate in the critique group she mentions here. I hope you enjoy reading this whimsical poem as much as I did.

alice13wordwalk

What Is the Name for a Group of Poets?

a poem by Alice Jane-Marie Massa

A colony of beavers

must know something

about colons and semicolons.

A sleuth of bears

hibernates to envision

the highs and lows of detective stories.

A kaleidoscope of butterflies

flutters around fictional fantasies.

But, what do we call

a group of poets?

A murder of crows

sounds appropriate for

a group of mystery writers.

A flight of doves

must develop

many creative ideas.

A convocation of eagles

must ease into

historical fiction.

A cast of falcons

must focus on

TV scripts and stage dramas.

A stand of pink flamingos

perches upright and ready

to present

behind any podium.

Perhaps, you can think of what to call

a group of poets.

A cackle of hyenas

have to turn to comedy.

A troop of kangaroos

can write military history.

A leap of leopards

jumps into a variety

View original post 722 more words

The rails of the printed page

In celebration of National Library Week, here’s a post from Washington’s poet laureate. What do you remember about your local public library when you were growing up? How has it changed since then? Do you think public libraries are important? I hope so.

Washington State Poet Laureate

This week libraries across the country are celebrating National Library Week. We all have read, or heard, stories of how libraries have literary saved people’s lives. Those lives were perhaps mired in difficulty and libraries offered a way to engage with new ideas, imagine possibilities and experience lives different than their own.

Growing up in El Salvador I did not have any public libraries. I knew there was a National Library in San Salvador, the capital. There were probably libraries in larger towns, but they were not easily accessible nor part of the collective consciousness. My father and mother, both teachers, were avid readers so I was lucky to have many books at home. They showered me with books they thought useful for me to read. They signed me up for a Book-of-the-Month Club through which I read Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Juan Ramón Jímenez, and many of the Western…

View original post 414 more words