My Blog

  • Pelican Interview (Really. An interview by pelican)

    My publisher asked some pretty profound questions about “Killing Spring.” They made me stop and think about why all 104,000+ of them, found their way into this book. Why did I string them together the way I did? What truths do they reveal? DO they reveal truths? Are there fun words? Shocking words? Unusual words?…

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  • A town by any other name smells less like a lawsuit

    Most locations in books I write are fictional for two reasons: -I’m too lazy to corroborate real details of real towns, and -I have a secret dread that an entire town will want to sue the pants off me if I write anything disparaging. The two exceptions were “Hounded,” set in Des Moines, and “Christmas…

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  • Smile

    Auto generate on YouTube gave me three choices for an image clip. This is is best one. Way to keep my humble, YouTube

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  • Crush on a dead guy

    Even happily married grandmothers can develop pretty potent crushes. Mine is on a man I’ve never met. Heroic, unselfish, a hater of injustice and lover of liberty. Tall. Handsome, and— luckily for my husband—gone these 130-some years. Elihu Washburne was some kind of guy. Elihu and I met when my book club read David McCullough’s…

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  • Sin that slides, sin that Twists, sin that Clings

    God doesn’t get bored. The author of creation and creating and creativity is endlessly taking delight. Which means God isn’t bored by ’rote’ or repeated prayers. If, every day, we pray “Our Father who art in Heaven” from our hearts, with full approval from our minds before it passes our lips, He is pleased. He…

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  • Boycott Alcott? A better alternative

    Also a cookie recipe -1 cup peanut butter -1 egg 1 cup sugar a tsp of vanilla for class Mix, roll into balls, flatten with fork OR chocolate (kisses, Resses Cups, Rollos, Dove, etcetera, etcetera) Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes

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