Hello, Kids and All Readers, You might say I’ve gone “raven mad” lately. I refer to the bird, not my mental state! Research for my Book 5, Jacaranda Street: Gravestone Image, has taken me to many sites about Edgar Allan Poe and ravens. I can’t seem to get enough of either topic. But for today,…
Dear Readers, Horse Lovers, and/or Admirers of the late Queen Elizabeth II, Here is a heartwarming story from the New York Times by Jenny Gross, dated September 12, 2022, that I thought might be as interesting to you as it was to me. Mr. Monty Roberts, an eighty-seven-year-old legendary horse trainer from California, has special reasons to…
Dear Kids and Animal Lovers, Recently, on one of my morning walks, I saw a murder of crows in a tall, otherwise barren eucalyptus tree. The fifty plus large black birds were waiting for . . . um, coffee? Huh? A murder of crows? What’s that? That’s the collective name for a group of crows–one of…
Dear Readers, Current and Future Architects, and Fans of Ancient Egypt, Does Egypt call to you? If so, I think you’ll enjoy this . . . I have been a proud member of San Diego’s “Save Our Heritage Organisation” (SOHO), for many years. (Yes, that’s spelled with an “S,” not a “Z.”) SOHO does the important…
Dear Readers, My research for Book 5, Jacaranda Street: Gravestone Image, continues as I seek “the real” Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). I plan to spin a mystery around some aspect of Poe’s life, but the story will be set in present day California. What I have discovered to date is that Poe used his writing…
Dear Kids, English Teachers, Librarians, Playgoers, and All Readers, Sometime between April 23 and 26, the “Bard of Avon,” William Shakespeare, was born in 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. The exact day of his birth is not known, but his baptism was recorded in the Parish Register of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford on Wednesday, April…
Dear Readers, As I mentioned in my April 14th blog, my research for Book 5, Jacaranda Street: Gravestone Image, has begun. It will be mystery spun from some aspect of American writer Edgar Allan Poe’s life but set in present day California. He is arguably best known for his poem “The Raven” (1845). I hope…
Hello, Readers, It’s been a long day. I had to rush my precious poodle-bichon, Jimmy Lambchop, to the emergency animal hospital this morning after first taking him to his primary vet. Jimmy’s in a life-threatening situation with a clogged gallbladder and tumor on his spleen, so out those offending organs must come. Driving home, knowing…
Hello, Adult Readers, Standing in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, I’d like to introduce–or reintroduce–you to a female Ukrainian poet named Lyuba Yakimchuk. She was born in 1985 in Pervomaisk, Luhansk, in what was Ukraine’s industrial east. She and her family lost their home and fled as refugees in 2014 when Russian-backed militants occupied…
Dear Kids, Gardeners, and Lovers of the book The Secret Garden, I recently received an article from a dear friend (thanks, Deb!) dated October 30-31, 2021, from The Wall Street Journal, page C11. It is entitled “A Blooming Genius,” by the WSJ’s children’s book columnist, Meghan Cox Gurdon. She was referring to the British author of The…
