I’m sorry to say I just learned the East of Eden Writers Conference, which was to take place in Salinas in September, had to be canceled this year. I looked forward to attending for the first time. The conference was another casualty of the slow economy. The city closed its community center and the registration … More East of Eden Writers Conference

For those of you interested in studying midwifery or lactation consulting, or in becoming doulas, there is news at Aviva Institute, the online school where I teach. Aviva is in the process of a reorganization with some new leadership and procedures to improve the running of the school. One of the changes is the announcement … More Midwifery news

I previously blogged about the Vision Recycling programs for recycling kitchen and garden waste for Santa Cruz County. My Master Composter class was hosted at the Vision facility at the Buena Vista landfill in Watsonville and given a tour. Since then the kitchen scrap composting has been outsourced to another county and the Ecocomp that … More Vision Recycling for Santa Cruz County

Mary Kole on her Kidlit site wrote on July 21st an article entitled “Do Unpublished Writers Have to Blog?” She makes some good points and basically her answer is “no”, unless you have something to say. She has echoed some of my feeling that I don’t want to post things on my blog that are … More To blog or not to blog

I am reading John Gardner’s THE ART OF FICTION and, in spite of his academic style and extremely long paragraphs, I’m gleaning some excellent writing advice. I’m less than half way through the book, but I want to post this sentence: “Slowly, patiently, with the patience that separates a Beethoven from men of equal genius … More The Art of Fiction

I discovered that Zoe Woods, the main character in Wandering Time, is a fan of fifties music and especially loves Fats Domino’s Blueberry Hill. You can now listen to Fats playing and singing this song on the Kids’ page.

Okay, these are totally unrelated topics as far as I know. I haven’t posted for a while because I don’t want to bore people by blogging about my personal life. Yesterday, however, was a big day. The culmination of months of saving the best tidbits of my garbage to put in the worm bin. (The … More Worm compost and the new moon

My friend Claudia Finseth from the Highlights Whole Novel Workshop for Fantasy read Wandering Time and gave me some excellent suggestions. She also copied writing tips from John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers. I’m posting some of the tips here because I think others may be interested in a … More Writing advice

The East of Eden writer’s conference in Salinas happens in September. Early registration discount will be available only through June 30th. Take a look at the web site. It looks like a great conference, especially for Monterey Bay area residents.

I’m back from my road trip to Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR. The reputation for rain is well earned! At least while I was there this past week, that’s all we had. And a little further south, in the Willamette Valley, the allergens were running high. But, not to be negative, it’s beautiful. The Aviva … More Back from the Northwest