And in the backyard whence all things are possible… “Look- look, Mom!  Gordie has a dead bird!  And he’s trying to get into the house!” (This from both kids, screaming and waving arms in excitement.) “Ack!  SHUT THE DAMNED DOOR!” “Aw, mom– look!  He’s playing with it.  He’s so proud!”  (This from Zoomboy.) “Oh!  Mom!… Read More

I’ll be honest, my family isn’t particularly sentimental about patriotism.  We’ve see far too many politicians use it–as Mark Twain insisted– as the last refuge of the nincompoop.  If someone doesn’t like your version of how to fix the world, well, they scream “UNPATRIOTIC” in your face, and you run away, for fear of being… Read More

Well, I tried to cook the children, but they’re still not well done. I took them to the pool and let them swim until Squish’s little cheeks got really red, and her shoulder too.  And then we came home and I napped. Which is sort of what I’ve been doing all week.  What, Amy, you… Read More

Hello, DSP peeps! So, uhm, yesterday was a travel day. I usually don’t have too much to report about those, yeah?  I get on the plane, I happily occupy myself with books and knitting and music– things I don’t have enough time to do off the plane– and then I land and cab, or kiss… Read More

  So, right before I left for NOLA, Caroline Hanson asked me if I was going to have any time to play.  I responded, “Oh hell no!” immediately.  After three years of doing this whole travel thing, I’ve gotten used to the idea that, very often, the most I’ll see of a particular city is… Read More

In 1814 we took a little trip… Good morning, America How Are you?  Don’t you know me, I’m your native son… There’s a moon over Bourbon Street… There is a house in New Orleans… So, this the place where all the music comes from. I like it. The streets that I’ve seen are narrow, with… Read More

Heya– I always regard Mother’s Day with such mixed emotions. On the one hand, it’s great to have a reason to do pretty much nothing while my family makes a big deal out of me. On the other  hand, especially when our grandmothers were alive, between grandmothers, stepmothers, and moms in general, we pretty much… Read More

Okay– can I just say this isn’t a meme, it’s really what she said, and this picture and quote alone is like one of my favorite rants of all times?  And that’s saying something– a fan who read Blackbird went off on a rant about health care during the review, and I almost broke protocol… Read More

  Alas, nothing says “RT Season” more than people too busy to pimp their own books!  Seriously, I got no takers for *kermit flail Monday* this month, and truthfully, I can’t think of many of my friends who actually have releases, so, I guess mostly I just remind you all that Blackbird Knitting in a… Read More

One of the things I really love about writing is when you find your characters in a place that they created all by themselves. In Winter Courtship of Fur Bearing Critters, we learn from Craw that Jeremy was an ex convict and an ex conman, whom Craw had met panhandling on the streets of Boulder…. Read More