Palm Trees, Postcards, and… Nuclear Fall-out?
This week I thought I’d take a break from writing about fiction for one of my periodic posts about living in Paradise. Which, honestly, is a fiction of another kind. Yep, if you’ve read my posts about the lava flow that rained ash upon us and nearly swallowed a neighboring town, or even the ones about the preponderance of vermin and annoying feral pigs, you’ve probably figured out by now that Hawaii Island isn’t all palm trees and postcards. And if you watched the news at all this week, you can probably guess where I’m heading today… Most Saturdays, we Read more…
Welcomed Home by the Other Red Army
Ah, home again, after a two week, multi-location odyssey (Hilo to Austin to New Orleans to Seattle to San Juan Island and back to Hilo, if you’re keeping track). There was relatively little pet drama while we were gone, although Fred did shred his Thunder Shirt at the kennel. And there were no rats squatting in our house, as happened the last time we visited Sydney’s home state (see Vacation Interlopers). However, there were other squatters, or at least a change of behavior in the pre-existing residents. Which is why I just put Vaseline on my laptop. Not directly. I Read more…
I’m Still Here, Still Hanging with the Dogs and Skynet
This is just a quick check-in to let you know I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth or, Facebook post to the contrary, curled up in a corner to binge-watch Hanna-Barbera cartoons and eat cereal. I have a real blog post for you that’s nearly finished—a Stories I Love no less—but I wanted to spend a little time polishing it first. Who was it that observed, it takes so much longer to write short than to write long? (Apparently, the origins of, “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter,” are a matter of Read more…
Happy New Year! Don’t Forget Your Sub-Bucket List
Ah, yes, another New Year is hard upon us. If you’re not going out to celebrate, I hope you have all of your entertainment and dining options standing by, as well as any appropriate medications for your pets (and perhaps for you, to deal with them). Today my husband is picking up more Valium for our dog Fred, who—thanks to a few neighbors with more guns and fireworks than sense—has been working his way slowly but surely through the bottle and possibly toward doggie rehab. With the exception of sleep-disrupting dog anxiety, I’m not really feeling the New Year’s thing Read more…
Psychic Dogs, and a Holiday Treat for Sydney Brennan Fans (Shh–It’s a Free Short Story)
Well, I’m back in rainy Hawaii this week. My jet-lagged brain is still struggling to make complete sentences, but my sloughing skin has never been happier. 😉 I’ll be sharing more about my visit to West Virginia soon, along with whatever pictures I can filch from my husband and mom (my position in the back seat, along with my tendency to forget my phone/camera, left me photo-less). For now, I’ll just say it was cold (high temperatures in the teens) and dry. Did I mention the d-r-y? Traveling anywhere from the islands is always… let’s just say involved. But the Read more…
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