Sometimes I find it so amazing to live here in Boulder, beneath the Flat Irons of the Rocky Mountains. Every morning there is always something extraordinary to see, and to be filled with wonderment. Sometimes it is the elk coming down from the mountains to feed in the green flood plains where we walk, or […]
Rising Before Dawn to Greet the Harvest Moon Read More »
I am heading to the desert for a while and bringing new projects along….looking forward to the dry cool nights, and the stars high overhead. And then I found these fall beauties from Madeleine Tosh! Let's see how fast I can knit while trying to finish preparing a second novel for re-release (Flight of Michael
By the Work of Hands, We Heal Ourselves. Read More »
A few photographs of my grandfather, Pierre Menager's work, have surfaced. I am always charmed by his informal paintings…they have so much life and so little social distancing. A barn dance and a wedding…They make me happy on these dark days. And another favorite to hell with social distancing moment from "Stray Dog" directed
To Hell With Social Distancing…Can We Celebrate How To Be Close Again? Read More »
Because this is so much more beautiful, poised, and calm, in the next pandemic, I will strive for loveliness.
How to Be Elegant in a Time of Pandemic…. Read More »
We hike a lot across the Colorado Front Range as it is something almost every one is compelled to do here; the chance to be so completely surrounded by a magnificent landscape that invites one to enter into its beauty. It doesn't really matter what season it is, we always find a trail and head
The Language of Cairns Read More »
It seems the right day to reread this story. I am writing in the near dark, just the illumination of candles and a friendly pair of glowing pumpkins looking over my shoulder. Jack Straw was one of those rare stories that appear instantly and somehow hardwired in my brain. I wrote it all at once,
On this All Saints and All Souls Read More »
This blog/website combines the various types of my creative work: In the Labyrinth: the main blog for my ongoing writing life, which often includes research notes (easier to find them all in one place), events, books, and essays. Nature and Family: a biographical blog for family, present, and past, both maternal and paternal and contemporary
Is It Even Possible To Organize One’s Life? Read More »
In anxious moments while working on the current novel, I turn for assistance to a 1968 Paris Review interview with the great Canadian author Robertson Davies, where he describes his writing process, a laborious and methodical investigation long before the narrative is written. "I am at the moment winding up to write another novel, and
When Struck by Fear of Writing, Refer To The Masters For Help Read More »
These lovely Medieval flowers are always swoon-worthy in the margins of various Book of Hours, sometimes in medical texts, sometimes in gardening books. I can never get enough of looking at these beautiful images and feeling inspired, mostly to embroider May Morris-style textiles. They are helpful when writing historical fiction, for they reveal the unique
The Marginalia of Flowers Read More »
I am having a wonderful time reading 16th-century Basile's splendid introductions to stories in his Tales of Tales. And while the tales are wicked-wonderful, these observations on the human condition have me enthralled — I suspect because they remain surprisingly current. Plus ça change… "…artisans leave their shops, merchants their trade, lawyers their cases, shopkeepers
Startling Moments from Basile That Still Ring True Read More »
