On the Friday after Thanksgiving in 2017, I went dog shopping. A couple of months before that I lost my best dog ever Oscar to bone cancer. He was only seven and I had hoped for at least two or three more years with him. He was a big lab mix and without a doubt, a person in a dog …
So Many Reasons to Be Thankful
Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way. (Native American Proverb) Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. What a great time to think about all the reasons we have to be thankful! I have so many to count off. My family. The Lord’s love and grace. My church family. Good health. A beautiful place to live with fields and woods …
Chalking Up Another Anniversary
A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance and tenacity. The order varies for any given year. ~Paul Sweeney We celebrated our anniversary today by going to church and then to a fast food restaurant for some burgers and ice cream. Big time celebrators, right? But we had just come from from St. Louis where I got to …
Let’s Name a Cat
“If cats could talk, they wouldn’t.” –Nan Porter This is my sister’s cat. He has a name her granddaughter gave him years ago when she was a little girl. Something like Fluffleupaluff. She’d been a Sesame Street watcher and the show used to have a muppet character called Mr. Snuffleupagus that nobody saw but Big Bird. Anyway, the Fluff name …
A Character Study
I’m working on a new book. That means a whole new cast of characters. Last week I wanted to get to know the man who will be my main male character. The one thing I know about him is that he is an artist. Well, I know some other things too but not everything. For some reason, I started writing …
The Best Place to Be Famous
Some years ago I shared parts of this post about how to know if you were famous. At the time, a kid at a book event had asked me “Are you famous?” I didn’t exactly know how to answer him. I was there trying to get people interested in some books I’d written. But does writing a book make one …
1st Sunday Devotional – Beauty from Weeds
This was the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. …Psalm 118:23 (NKJ) Several years ago, on a cold autumn morning, I was walking through a field on my farm when I spotted something white on the ground. I knew it hadn’t snowed or sleeted. The sky above me was clear. I wondered if it could be litter – …
A Story Needs People
“I will go to my grave in a state of abject endless fascination that we all have the capacity to become emotionally involved with a personality that doesn’t exist.” (Berkeley Breathed) As a writer I have become emotionally involved with many characters that only came into existence because I imagined them and set them down on a story trail. As I …
Want a Peek at My New Book Cover?
I wanted you all to be the first to see my new book cover. So here is the first peek at the cover of The Song of Sourwood Mountain that I’ve been promising to show you for a couple of weeks. While the book won’t be out there for readers until May 2024, it is already available for pre-order at …
A Mood of Faith and Hope
If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk? (Dr. Laurence J. Peter) I’ve shared this quote a couple of times before here on my blog, One Writer’s Journal, but it keeps coming to mind since my desk can get cluttered in a very short amount of time. There are just …