Alliteration – A Literary Device to Add Some Writing Spice

Over the next few days, I hope to say a word or two about several different literary devices that writers might use to give their writing some punch. My favorite literary device is alliteration. “Laboring, lumbering, laden, and lingering, The Ladybug lollygags along, Her polka-dotted paint shop lags behind.” Ladybug and Damselfly: How They Became…

Co-Author with Your Elderly Parent: Do Yourself A Favor

“Maybe it’s true that life begins at fifty. But everything else starts to wear out, fall out, or spread out.” ― Phyllis Diller My mother is 93 years old and she lives over 181 miles away from me. To make matters worse, the gap between the two of us is crooked, mountainous, and a slow-go, but…

Miss Maple’s Seeds Are Being Born in My New Front Front Yard

Tomorrow, I’ll begin moving to my new, 125-year-old house in the Ozark Mountains. Yesterday, I was wandering around in my new front yard, and I paused for a moment beside the huge, old tree, where the daffodils are blooming, I knelt low, and I couldn’t help but notice that my big, old tree has a…

Celebrate Spring with Lois Ehlert’s Book Planting A Rainbow

Although I am living, writing, and painting in the Ozark Mountains now, I was a Children’s Librarian in New Jersey for years before now, and especially during the spring, I miss my work as a Children’s Librarian. New Jersey is certainly colder than the Ozark Mountains, and the snow and black ice and N’oreasters wreak…