Novelista

It's spring, or so the calendar tells me.  The weather hasn't made up its mind yet.  Such is life in Southwestern Pennsylvania. I'm sharing an excerpt of the detective story I've been intermittently writing with my fantasy series.  This story takes place in present day, has no portals to magical worlds, and is currently titleless. Here is an introduction of something different.  From the first page: Rain pattered Zia’s umbrella while the cold, spring air made her arm ache.  She thought nothing could be worse than Pittsburgh’s winter for her mending bicep.  Then, Pittsburgh’s spring came.  Tucking the umbrella’s rod between her neck and shoulder, she rubbed her upper arm.  Her pace increased as she peered at the six story red brick building—the only legally occupied building in one of the forgotten, dilapidated sections of the city.  She hurried inside, hoping its warmth would ease the pain. An original to the building, out of comm...

Me with the Easter Bunny So much of who we are flows into our writing.   Or, at least, it does for me.   This Easter morning, memories of childhood Easters seep through the cracks. My parents would hide Easter baskets somewhere in the house for me and my brother.   They kept the same wicker baskets from year to year, but would fill them with our favorites and,   perhaps, something new they thought we’d like.   Every year, they would throw in something we disliked, too.   Things like black jelly beans (my mom’s favorite) and white chocolate (my dad’s favorite).   And, of course, they were always happy to take it off our hands. My grandmother would purchase candy for the house, such as one or two pound eggs filled with chocolate buttercream, fruit and nut, peanut butter, and my personal favorite, coconut.   After sampling some candy, we feasted on my mother’s delicious cooking. For Bow of the Moon (The World In-between 2), I t...

All lined and ready for doors Slowly and surely, this tired, old kitchen is getting a long overdue makeover.  The light wood cabinets with large chrome knobs and chrome trimmed laminate counters were all part of a modern kitchen of the 50s.  At some point in the 90s, someone replaced the gas cooktop and wallpapered the walls, which are now a lovely shade of green. The cabinets had this shabby-ness to them with the varnish on the doors coming off and the oversized chrome knobs rusting.  After a long deliberation about color, the cabinets finally have been painted an off white.  The doors and drawers came off and out for sanding and painting.  Hardware was removed.  Upon first moving in, new knobs matched the newly installed brushed faucet.  The faucet has since ceased operating properly.  The new one is now polished chrome.  The knobs no longer match. At first, chrome pulls and knobs were bought.  They just didn’t do it for ...

Spring marches swiftly.  Robins poke at the grass outside my office window.  I spend mornings writing with the window open.  Chirping and increasing road traffic reverberate around my writing nook.  Although Hope (The World In-between, 5) takes place in the spring, the outside becomes background noise. This one scene sequence constantly plays in my mind.  It doesn’t care if I’m not at that point in the story yet.  My main goal has been to get my characters there.  The scene is a major turning point in the story and in Hope’s character development.  I want to say that I didn’t plan that scene when I first started, but somewhere in my mind, I think I did.  Why else would I have dropped the breadcrumbs? It’s funny.  In my literature classes, we were expected to deconstruct stories, look for meaning, what the author intended, et cetera.  When I walked across that stage and received my degree holder, writing had well taken ...

Not having access to the channel on which my interview on Mount Pleasant Up Close aired, a DVD of it has been made for me. All I need to do is pick it up. Look for the video to be posted the week after Easter. Happy Passover! Happy Easter! Happy Spring!

June has been hiding. I remember the beginning of June as a child. The bright blue sky and the summer-like breezes taunted us as we spent the last days of the school year stuck behind a desk. How we yearned to run barefoot through the grass. Or longed to play under the watchful gaze of the sun. Nighttime brought lightning bugs to the backyard. Short and t-shirts became our uniform. This first week of June brought weather forgotten in months that have already passed. Cold rains, dreary dark days, and nights that need an extra blanket. In spite of the lack of warmth, lush green carpets all the eye can see. The middle of the night smells of summer. All that is left is for the sun to command the sky to stay blue so I can find my shorts for a journey through the grass.

Through the clouds, sunlight dances on the mountains. Shadows camouflage the brown while the new green growth sparkles. Spring is proof that any dark doldrums can be overcome.

Food from your own garden always tastes better than anything bought in the supermarket. Sometimes that’s because of growing a different varietal. Most times it is because food from your garden gets picked at the height of ripeness. Planning your garden should be done well ahead of the ideal time to plant. In preparation for this year’s garden, we made lists of what plants we wanted to grow. Of those plants, we’ve decided which ones were going to grow from seed and which were going to transplant from nursery flats. Over the last month or so, different stores have been having sales on seed packets. Collecting seed packets are a fun first step to building this season’s garden. Earlier this month, Home Depot had a buy one get one half off sale on herbs and veggies. Even though we cannot plant much yet, we also could not pass up a sale on our favorite garden plants. We bought 20 plants from our local Home Depot. Those collection of plants include a variety of herbs, a f...

Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, the robins have returned to my little area. My cats are having a field day watching them peck at the morning grass from the safety of a window ledge. On a gorgeously clear Sunday, like today, the motorcycle brigade roars down Main Street off to some point in the mountains. Over the low rumble of engines, church bells call their congregations inside their stained glass houses. Inside my late Victorian, butter bubbles brown in a pan over a low flame. The robust aroma of coffee permeates the kitchen before escaping down the hall. Ham is sliced off the bone waiting to be reheated in a pan. Eggs, fresh from the farm, are cracked into the bubbling butter. My family and I sit around the table to eat. Soft butter melts into toasted bread while the pulp floats on top of the orange juice. My dad and brother crack open the egg white allowing the golden yellow yolk to run all over their plates. My mom and I savor well fried ham slices as well as s...

Ah, March. Spring is well on its way. Of course some of us could argue that winter never really made an appearance. This morning, the snow jokingly played in the air only to melt on contact. However, this evening snow blankets with a vengeance. I missed the snow this winter. I missed the entire month or so of days in the 20s. Some would call me crazy. They loved the mild winter. These will be the first people to complain about our extra buggy spring. Every action has at least one reaction. Sometimes good, sometimes bad and sometimes a mixture of both. The whims of March can bring us snow, rain, sun, warm, cool and pretty darn cold. It can fake the trees into early bloom only to encase the flower show under a coating of ice. Reports of crocuses blooming have sprung around the area. I have pretty lemon yellow daffodils planted by a previous owner that have yet to show their green leaves. Regardless of what the weather brings, this is the time of year I anticipate planting my...