A Leap of Faith
Coco Chanel said, " A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life." Well, I have a new 'do, and, I'm about to take a leap of faith. I am leaving my teaching career to pursue writing full time. I'm scared to death I'm doing something stupid, but it won't be...
Stella’s Buck
This morning at just past 6:30 Wisconsin's gun deer season opened. I'm not sure anyone who is not from a part of the country where people hunt could understand the excitement hunters feel this time of year. My students, both girls and boys, were heading off to the...
Ada Lovelace: Mathematical Visionary
Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, and it does, mostly. I'm sure I'm not alone in my struggle to learn the nearly constant changes in technology I'm supposed to apply in both my work as a teacher and also my work as a writer. I must admit part of...
A Place of Peace
Publishing my novels is still my dream, but twice now I've submitted my writing to Word of Art, the creative brainchild of In Print Professional Writers Organization, an affiliate of the Chicago Writers Association....
Practice Art to Be Forever Young
A fellow blogger and wonderful writer, Paula Reed Nancarrow, has been taking a break from writing posts for the month of August and has instead complied a number of quotes from writers about different topics. She has used the using the hashtag #AUTHORity to highlight...
Raspberry Time
Look what greeted me when I got home today! Our first berries of late summer. The raspberries have been coming in rather sparsely this year because we (and when I say we, I mean my wonderful husband) reworked the beds where they were planted. Raspberries spread. We...
Seasonal Changes Afoot
I've been procrastinating. I was supposed to publish this post on Wednesday, but here it is Friday, and I've only just now begun to write. I apologize to those of you who look forward to my Wisconsin Wednesday posts. The thing is I don't want fall to arrive,...
Shannon Anderson to be in Word of Art 2
I'm very excited to go to Illinois to read my short essay "A Place of Peace" about my special spot by the river here in Wisconsin! I can't wait to see the art that Sarah McCashland created to go with my words! I'm buying a book for my mom. Is there ever a time we...
Writing Lessons from David Rhodes
One piece of advice new writers should follow is read a lot and write a lot. I try to do both often. My reading tastes are eclectic. Sometimes I read for pleasure, sometimes as a teacher, sometimes as a writer, but always as a consumer of wonderful words. What...
The “Wilds” of Wisconsin
Although technically we are past the dog days of summer, we are still enjoying warm weather here in Wisconsin. The beautiful warmth is fleeting, but during summer all sorts of plant and animal life thrive. Though many of the songbirds that I adore hearing this time of...