As part of the 15 Habits Of Great Writers Challenge, I’ve been dared to practice in public.  Last Friday, I shared a little snippet of Zach the Zombie, and everyone was so encouraging that I’m starting Fiction Friday.  Like last week, go easy on me…this is raw, unedited stuff.  This week, the verb tense jumps back and forth.  I know this.  I’m sorry.  Grammar-police, please check your red pens at the door.   “Arthur, I need to go.” Arthur takes a deep breath and heaves it back out again with a long cough.  He spits a chunk of phlegm and flesh out […]

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Exactly five years ago, we were in Ukraine, in the home stretch of our five-week adventure for Masha’s adoption. Today is the last day that I’m posting excerpts and a photo or two from each day. Sometimes funny, and sometimes proof of how naive we were, I hope you have enjoyed our little trip down memory lane… 21 June, 2007 – Re-Entry Note:  Thursday went as planned, and our flight on Friday morning was scheduled for about 6:45 AM.  It took about a week to get unpacked, settled and to write my last blog entry from the trip: We left […]

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As part of the 15 Habits Of Great Writers Challenge, I’ve was dared last week to been to practice in public–to post something here like nothing I’ve ever posted before. Now, Jeff has dared us to “Start Ugly.” This means that I need to confess something to you.  What you normally see here?  That’s not how it starts.  Thoughts don’t typically come pouring out of me like a beautiful flowing river (nor do they end up looking like that, either).  They look a lot more like a Class 6 rapids.  Messy.  Doubling back on themselves.  Lots of rocks. Then I edit. […]

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Exactly five years ago, we were in Ukraine, in the home stretch of our five-week adventure for Masha’s adoption. For a few more days, I’m posting excerpts and a photo or two from each day. Sometimes funny, and sometimes proof of how naive we were, I hope you’ll enjoy our little trip down memory lane… Wednesday, 13 June, 2007 – The Midnight Train to Kiev (part 2) The train arrived right on time this morning, and as Mark was trying to wrestle one of our big duffel bags out from under the bench seat, he popped up, and there was […]

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Exactly five years ago, we were in Ukraine, in the home stretch of our five-week adventure for Masha’s adoption. For a few more days, I’m posting excerpts and a photo or two from each day. Sometimes funny, and sometimes proof of how naive we were, I hope you’ll enjoy our little trip down memory lane… Tuesday, 12 June, 2007 – The Midnight Train To Kiev (part 1) We got up bright and early.  The hot water was still out in our building, so we filled the tub with four inches of cold water, and then boiled four big stockpots of water and […]

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