another reason I love Writers In The Schools

Look at this amazing little poem by first grader Miguel!  If I could BE a holiday card, this would be it! Plus look at the great graphics!  The snowflakes are made out of the WITS tree logo!  Here’s how they describe their program: “WITS gives children all over Houston the gift of creativity, the power to […]

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want to see my ranch?

Blogger, photographer, digital storyteller, and all-around superhero Karen Walrond came out to my family’s ranch (we are Texans, after all) this weekend and took some photos of the place with a twin-lens reflex camera. I am a big fan of old cameras (the main character in Everyone Is Beautiful uses one), and these photos are […]

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forgetfulness

I posted this YouTube video of Billy Collins’ poem “Forgetfulness” on Kirtsy when I was a Guest Editor there last year.  I still find myself going back to watch it from time to time.  I love the grainy animation in the video, the way the images flicker in and out and overlap each other.  And, […]

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square america

I’ve made a great discovery. A site called Square America that is “a gallery of vintage snapshots and vernacular photography.”  Photos from the early 20th century up through the 1970s or so. I keep going back to the site to browse through it. Some of the images are breathtaking. Some of them are funny. All […]

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cowgirl

I stumbled on this photograph today at Cowgirl Up!, and I can’t stop going back to look at it.

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the duchess

My eyes are puffy this morning because I cried so hard and so long while watching The Duchess at the movies last night.  I mean, I cried and cried. But good crying. Cathartic crying.  The kind that comes from experiencing something real. I want to feel something when I see a movie or read a […]

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world-famous tortilla soup!

Last summer, reader and blogger Natasha Maw did an interview with me on her Maw Books Blog.  One of her questions was about a tomato-lime soup that I’d written about in The Bright Side of Disaster.  She thought the soup sounded good, and wondered if I had the recipe. Of course, many of things in […]

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one year after I decided to start a blog

I’m finally doing it.  I love to read blogs.  But, with two little kids and many stories playing themselves out in my head most of the time, lots of nights I fall asleep still in my clothes. You know, really.  My plate is full.  Overly full.  Spilling off onto the table.  But that has to […]

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