Mysterynovelist.com - Weblog Home
musings and writings of Barbara W. Klaser


November 25, 2005

Dust devil or dust angel?

It was a hot, dry, dusty day in the Central Valley of California. Late August or early September. I rode in the camper, while my dad drove, and my mom and younger brother rode up front, in the cab of the truck. I think I was sixteen. We’d spent a few days in the Sierra Nevada. Now we headed home to San Diego County. Dad usually drove south through the valley, but it was too hot today, so we aimed for the coast, hoping for cooler weather there. We looked forward to a bowl of clam chowder in Morro Bay. I think we were somewhere west of Fresno when it happened.

I sat on a sturdy metal cooler with my back against the oven door. From time to time I peered through the cab’s open back window at the road ahead, and talked to my parents and brother. It was a boring drive, with scenery that repeated beige and flat, in unrelenting heat. Irrigated farmland created the only break in the barrenness, with its artificial patchwork of green. (more…)

November 21, 2005

A hippopotamus in the room

Once when I was seven years old, I wakened during the night for no apparent reason. I peered over the side of my bed, and I froze.

A hippopotamus loomed there in the dark, right between my bed and my sister’s. My heart nearly stopped, and I don’t think I breathed for a minute or so. I lay awake for a long time, afraid to move a muscle or make a sound, because surely if I made a noise the hippo would attack me or my sister. I was afraid to sleep, because then how could I warn anyone else, when they woke up or tried to enter our room, that the hippo was there? I was terrified. I didn’t know what to do. (more…)

November 2, 2005

Rosa Parks legacy

Rosa Parks represents what an awesome force for change even one person can be, if they have the courage. If one woman can inspire so much, imagine what we can do together. Her life might’ve been easier if she’d given up her seat, given in to the status quo, but she wouldn’t have been truly free. The easy way, the habitual way, “the way it’s always been done” sometimes must be broken through.

While thousands honor Rosa Parks today, in Detroit and elsewhere, BBC has posted reader tributes.

File: — Barbara @ 12:17 pm PST, 11/02/05
Similar posts: Rain, more rain and rainmakers and Pinter's Nobel lecture
November 1, 2005

Who are your kids listening to?

Hopefully not these two. I never thought the day would come when I’d prefer to see Britney Spears in the news. Newsweek has taken a little time out from reporting on the White House’s woes to remind us that racism is still around and in fact appears to be taking on yet another new generation, in Race: The White Album. Here’s the view from news.telegraph: Twin pop stars with angelic looks are new face of racism. Is this a sign of what’s to come? My question is, does neoconservatism fertlize the ground for this sort of blatant intolerance?

File: — Barbara @ 12:37 pm PST, 11/01/05
Similar posts: Fiction versus reality, Dreams and Memories, Wordless journeys, Beautiful minds and Los Romeros



Navigation

Administration

Categories

Some Personal Favorites:


Eight of Swords
Eight of Swords
, by David Skibbins

The Probable Future
The Probable Future
, by Alice Hoffman

Life of Pi
Life of Pi
, by Yann Martel


High Rhymes and Misdemeanors (A Poetic Death Mystery), by Diana Killian


Verse of the Vampyre (A Poetic Death Mystery), by Diana Killian

Four for a Boy
Four for a Boy, by Mary Reed, Eric Mayer

Books on Creativity and Writing:



The Writer's Mentor
, by Cathleen Rountree

Finding Your Voice
Finding Your Voice
, by Les Edgerton

The Writing Life
The Writing Life, by Annie Dillard

Writing Down the Bones
Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg

The Art of Fiction
The Art of Fiction, by John Gardner

On Becoming a Novelist
On Becoming a Novelist, by John Gardner

November 2005
S M T W T F S
« Oct   Dec »
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930  

Recent Comments:

Recently Commented Articles:


  • Blogs I Read

    • Beyond the Fields We Know
    • Bill Crider
    • Blog Trek
    • Bruce Black
    • BuzzStuff
    • Cassie-B
    • Down the Writers Path
    • Eric Mayer
    • Forrest Landry
    • Greetings from Blogdog
    • how to save the world
    • Infospigot: The Chronicles
    • JA Konrath
    • Jackson's Actions
    • Kingfisher Cove
    • MJ Rose
    • Oculus Divinorum
    • Paula's House of Toast
    • Rhubarb
    • Rochelle Krich
    • Rosalind Mitchell
    • Sketch Blog of the Day
    • Spinning
    • View From My Window
    • violetismycolor
    • Zen Knit
  • Crime Fiction Sites

  • Other Sites of Interest

    • Hope 4 America
    • InkPot
    • Your Yoga Voyage
  • Reader resources

    • Authors' Blogs
    • Best Author Blogs
  • WordPress Plugins

    • Alexking.org
    • boren.nu
    • ChaitGear
    • GaMerZ
    • Jixor.com
    • Photo Matt
    • Simple Thoughts
    • Weblog Tools Collection
  • Writer resources

    • Agent Query
    • Crime Prof Blog
    • Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing
    • JA Konrath Writing Tips
    • Maud Newton
    • Miss Snark, the literary agent
    • Preditors and Editors
    • The 39 Steps: A Primer on Story Writing
    • Writer's Edge
    • Writerisms and other sins

BlogStreet




  1. https://www.posmn.com/
  2. https://horseswithouthumans.org/
  3. https://mysterynovelist.com/
  4. https://www.alianzademediosalternativos.org/
  5. https://hemophiliasc.org/
  6. https://rebuildingtogether-oaklandcounty.org/
  7. https://www.albertanthonyrealestate.com/
  8. https://www.thewildestjourney.com/
  9. https://www.doumouchtsis.com/
  10. https://www.phocaltherapy.com/
  11. https://liviacstein.com/
  12. https://joharasnakedance.com/
  13. https://www.125timeinharlem.org/
  14. https://savingdowns.org/
  15. https://drpcjaipur.org/
  1. HOME