I have invited several of my writing colleagues to share an essay in answer to this prompt: “What lingers in your memory about a specific place, perhaps a recent vacation or a place you’ve lived? How did this place, or your travels, influence your creative process?” Tracy Nelson Maurer shares the memories of a recent and… Read More
I have invited several of my writing colleagues to share an essay in answer to this prompt: “What lingers in your memory about a specific place, perhaps a recent vacation or a place you’ve lived? How did this place, or your travels, influence your creative process?” Author Susan M. Latta expresses so well the sense of… Read More
I have invited several of my writing colleagues to share an essay in answer to this prompt: “What lingers in your memory about a specific place, perhaps a recent vacation or a place you’ve lived? How did this place, or your travels, influence your creative process?” Nonfiction author Mary Losure paints a true-to-life scene with her… Read More
On this Thanksgiving Day, 2017, I wish you good food, friends and family; gratitude and grace; and “The Peace of Wild Things,” a poem by Wendell Berry, taken from One Hundred Graces. My husband always reads a selection from this collection at the start of each holiday meal that our family is blessed to share… Read More
I have invited several of my writing colleagues to share an essay in answer to this prompt: “What lingers in your memory about a specific place, perhaps a recent vacation or a place you’ve lived? How did this place, or your travels, influence your creative process?” Writer Maggie Moris shares this essay. One blustery afternoon, several… Read More
I have invited several of my writing colleagues to share an essay in answer to this prompt: What lingers in your memory about a specific place, perhaps a recent vacation or a place you’ve lived? How did this place, or your travels, influence your creative process? Here is the first of these essays, written by author Aimée… Read More
It is the spring of 2002. My husband, Ralph, our daughter, Britt, and I are in the back seat of a black sedan heading 120 kilometers north of Beijing, China to the Simatai section of the Great Wall of China. Driving the sedan is Miss Wang, legal assistant to Xu Yi Ping, a Chinese patent… Read More
Where do writers draw their inspiration? From many books, articles, trips, conversations, and recipes! In Chapter 23 of The Secrets of Eastcliff-by-the-Sea, “Tea Party,” Annaliese hosts a tea party for her three cousins and their sock monkeys. Nora, Nadine, and Nell Ann have a surprise for Annaliese … their mother gave their sock monkeys away!… Read More
One of the great pleasures of this past summer has been rereading the works of Pat Conroy, a quintessential storyteller and one of my favorite authors of adult fiction. The Water is Wide, The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides, and Beach Music hold a special place in my heart, and… Read More
In The Secrets of Eastcliff-by-the-Sea, Annaliese hosts a tea party for her cousins, Nora, Nadine, and Nell Ann. She also invites their sock monkeys so Throckmorton can meet them, but Annaliese and Throckmorton are soon startled by her cousins’ revelation. In Chapter 23, The Tea Party, the food Annaliese serves is described this way: “A… Read More