Book review: On Writing by Stephen King

I just finished listening to Stephen King’s On Writing now, a book I last read about a decade ago, but I really liked it the first time and still like it now. A note on Stephen King: reading On Writing is the most I ever appreciate him. After I finished it the first time, I went out … Continue reading →

Reading about child homelessness

Invisible Child: Girls in the Shadows: Dasani’s Homeless Life Myths Over Miami This week I’ve read two long, intense articles about child homelessness — one published in the New York Times this past December, the other in the Miami New Times almost twenty years ago (1997).  Neither were easy to read, though with the second … Continue reading →

Book review: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert C. O’Brien

(Note: I experienced this book for the second time in audio form, and the first CD was so corrupted that I couldn’t listen to it at all. I almost returned it then to the library, but before I got around to it, I was sitting in traffic and decided why the hell not try the … Continue reading →

Book review: That Scandalous Summer by Meredith Duran

That Scandalous Summer by Meredith Duran My rating: 3 of 5 stars I have a high bar for Meredith Duran, because she’s shown that she can deliver a hell of a romance novel while also dealing with some incredibly weighty subjects, such as war crimes and PTSD (The Duke of Shadows), or social class conflict and … Continue reading →

Women’s Day with “René Gruau”

Originally posted on Creative Metamorphoun:
International Women’s Day > Mother’s Day, because all women should be celebrated whether or not they put their uterus to work. Creative Metamorphoun View original post Continue reading →

(Short Story) The Philosophy of Leaves

(Written in 2007.) * The air blew cooler now, cooler than any day of this year so far. Those walking beneath only hurried along quickly; their days of dawdling, looking up and around and enjoying the fall were past. A louder rustle could be heard today, above them in the trees; a rustle almost like … Continue reading →

(Short Story) To Prove Your Worth

(Written late 2009.) * A steady knocking dragged Julie back to her surroundings; dropping the paperback to her lap, she turned and demanded, “What?”Her father stood grinning in the doorway of her bedroom, knuckles against the doorframe. “Has the vampire rescued the princess from the tower yet?”Julie growled through her throat, moving to the edge … Continue reading →

(Short Story) Stood Up

(Written March 2009.) * Thirteen minutes past seven, Shannon picked up her bag and left. Outside the restaurant she turned right on a blind impulse, away from the subway station, and walked down the crowded downtown street. The Friday evening was packed with voices, exhaust, and people pushing past without looking at her. She turned … Continue reading →

(Longer Short Story) On the Flying Trapeze

(Written fall 2009.) * The spotlights hung nearly at the level of the high platform, and they half-blinded Penelope. Her new red leotard was uncomfortably tight, and the gold sequins dashed across the front scratched through the bodice. She rotated her shoulders, hoping the straps wouldn’t inhibit her movement, and glanced anxiously down at the … Continue reading →

Book review: The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart by Mathias Malzieu

This book begins with a lot of magical-realism: “on the coldest day ever,” a boy is born with a frozen heart, so the midwife (who seems to specialize in…steampunk science?  Seeing that the year is 1874, in Edinburgh) sets in a cuckoo-clock to operate his heart, a la Iron Man.  It’s exposed and everything. But … Continue reading →