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How This Blog Got Its Name
We were renting a home I loved. A 1910 craftsman with a big front porch, original wavy leaded windows, a sunny kitchen with one of those pass-through cupboards into the dining room, and enough room for...
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Happy Birthday, Mean Old Stepmother
Today is my stepmom Jan's birthday. She moved in when I was 15 and my sister, Suzanne, was 13, and, well, imagine what a hoot that must have been. Jan and her sweet, gentle six-year-old son, Marc,...
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Facing My Virtual Shyness
Seré has joined facebook.Seré is apparently the last person on the planet -- or at least in her high school class -- to join facebook.Seré is now friends with you and ten other people.Seré is now...
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If a Tree Falls in the Forest...
As I’ve mentioned, we recently moved, and are now living surrounded by redwoods. I am in love with the redwoods. One of my favorite things to do these days is to walk my lab, Stuart, up the steep road...
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Six-Word Stories
I've been revising a novel that runs about 80,000 words and writing web copy for a large site. So today's blog will be short on words. Which can be a good thing. No one could pare writing to the bone...
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Good-bye. Hello.
My grandmother, expecting my father.My grandmother died 23 years ago. On the day of her funeral, I had a secret burrowed down deep inside me.Days before, while my father's voice had choked out the sad...
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Where I'm From
I am from driftwood, a Mason jar of beach glass collected from our backyard shore on the Puget Sound, and wobbly figure-eights carved on a frozen backwoods pond in Connecticut -- shoveled and...
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Squirt Dog
A few years ago, my husband, Stan, descended into a bit of a funk. His job was not going well. (Which is a nice way of saying it totally sucked.) And we were a blenderized family with four teenagers....
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The Place Where You Go To Listen
When I was in my early twenties, I drove up the Alcan, the Alaskan Canadian highway, with my then soon-to-be-husband, who was from the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. I have always had a deep sense of...
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The Gift My Mother Gave Me
Today is my mom's birthday. I have so many good Mom Stories, I'm going to have to narrow them down to a few. But first you'll need a little background.Way back when, my mom was an A student, president...
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Gilmore Girls Night
Lauren Graham as Loralai and Alexis Bidel as RoryAbout once a month, sometimes more, my niece Maddie comes over for a Gilmore Girls Night. She brings her complete DVD set of the show's seven seasons....
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A Barnacle With the Wind in Her Hair
A few weeks ago, I pried my little barnacle self off my rock here in the woods by the water, and flew to Colorado to visit my mom and stepdad. Then I jet-setted back home for a couple of days before...
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Gratitude for My Writing Sister
A year ago today, I flew down to San Diego to hold onto the hand of one of my closest friends. Ellen lay in bed in the ICU, hooked up to a ventilator, as still as still can be. Under that stillness, a...
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81 Looks Damn Good on Him
Happy Birthday to Bill.Part stoic cowboy. Part teddy bear.A wise philosopherWho never met a tractor he didn't like.Well read. Well spoken.Friend to yaks. And kitties.Calls the chickens "Ladies" and his...
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Rocks, Paper, Wind
When I started this blog, I acknowledged that change is not only a part of life, it is life. The winds of change can sometimes be nothing but a whispering breeze and other times whip through with the...
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It Only Took One Week (Plus About 20 Years)
The view from The Barngalow.This is for everyone who writes. Or paints. Or sings. Or cooks, or dances, or builds, or teaches, or searches for cures. Or catches flying objects while leaping in the...
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A Very Bad Blogger
I have been a very bad blogger. Perhaps as punishment, I should write that sentence a hundred times and then at least I'd complete a blog post and break the silence we've been experiencing over here at...
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Florence, Paris, London, Elbow
Photo by Michael PrinceThe past several months have been a bit of a blur, focused (or I guess if it's a blur it would be a sort of an unfocused-focused) on The Book. The book, the book, the book. You...
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Let it Rain
Ellen Newmark in the Himalayas, 2009My friend and writing sister, Ellen, died last month. I got home from Europe and took a flight down to San Diego so we could say good-bye. She taught me so much...
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Fear Not
Merry Christmas. Our family is celebrating Christmas on the 28th because that's the day we can all be together, and so this morning it is probably more quiet at my house than it is at yours. And the...
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