We've just returned from a trip to MN, followed by a trip "back east" to Michigan and Chicago, to see family that included my first visit back to the cemetery where my sister Esther was buried last April. Bittersweet, for sure. And we saw a lot of friends. Just before those trips, I hosted a …
Category: memoir
The Move (10) — Musings at a Year
Are you someone who does not feel old but has awakened one day to discover you are old? Do you know you’re entering another phase of life but don’t know what to think about it? Are you facing life with no career plan after living a life filled with plans? I hope if you’re like …
Write What You Don’t Know #2: The Vasa
Until last week, I'd never heard of the Vasa Then, suddenly, when some folks knew we'd be in Stockholm, I got advice that we must go to the Vasa Museum. So today we did. First, we met with our Viking Representative stationed in the lobby of our Radisson Blu at the Waterfront We asked how …
Write What You Don’t Know
The Baltic region of the world. That's one of many things I don't know. I'm there now, and I remember when I first started writing in 2000, I was taught to write what you know. Easy. I knew then how to learn to write a book and get it published. I knew about nursing, city living, …
Write Along with Me #4: Fresh Descriptions
“I’ll never be as good as some of the authors I’m reading” is a common lament I hear when I attend writing workshops. Reading the best of the best can be intimidating. But also inspiring. And challenging. I have always had a problem with fresh, new sounding descriptions of everyday things. Like describing the sky; …
Preparing for Death
Morbid, right? In a sense, yes. In another, no. Around twelve years ago, my four older siblings and their spouses started planning for their funerals by buying cemetery plots. I followed their actions via our email chats. Since I’m five to eleven years younger, I saw no need to start planning. Now, unbelievably, six of …
Caring Lessons Book Signing – July 22, 2017, 9-12 noon
Run on over tomorrow morning to Reach a Reader Bookstore in Sioux Falls for their July sale. Located at 101 N. Minnesota Ave (on the lower level of Canfield Interiors), this inspiring bookstore supports adult literacy programs (and appreciates their many volunteers). I am happy to have the opportunity to be there also for a …
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Write Along with Me #2 : Tell It Slant
When I read that a suggested reading for my recent Write-by-the-Lake workshop with Amy Lou Jenkins was Miller and Paola’s Tell it Slant, I immediately got gut pain. Some years ago, during a writing workshop, the teacher had shown a page of an essay I’d written on a screen and asked the group of about …
Write Along with Me…
The fun is yet to be! Come with me, in spirit, to the Write-by-the-Lake Writer's Workshop & Retreat at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I’m getting ready to attend this retreat next week. And oh, what fun it is to prepare. I want to remind you, as I’ve done before, that your words will …
Join South Dakota Authors Saturday – 3-25-17
Support many South Dakota authors on Saturday, March 25, from 10-3 at Prairie Hills Covenant Church off Hwy 11. Come for lunch and help out the PHC youth! My Caring Lessons: A Nursing Professor's Journey of Faith and Self will be there, along with a new collection of essays: Starting Over at Seventy-four: From a …
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Write Along with Me 