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PB learns to ride the unicycle!
UPDATE: my unicycle hangs from a hook in our garage. Sometimes I tell it: I'll be back.January 1, 2025-
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Category Archives: Fiction
Kids Poetry Night
Tuesday, February 28th, a freaky political event occurred on TV, but also Poetry Night at my son’s school. Children and parents gathered to read/share poems from books they brought to the event and books supplied by the school’s librarian. Loved hearing … Continue reading
SCBWI Event Coming Up!
I am looking forward to next Saturday, 2/25/17. The Skirball is a choice location, indeed. Are you going? If so, see you there! https://losangeles.scbwi.org/events/writers-illustrators-day/
Posted in Children's Books, Fiction, Writing
Tagged 2017, books, Critique, Literature, Los Angeles, SCBWI Writers & Illustrators Day, Skirball Cultural Center, writing
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Healing By Degrees (FB Edition)
“What wound did ever heal but by degrees?” —-WS, Othello I’m talking Snapchattish-brief degrees. My impatience won out. I weeded Facebook ‘friends’ after the election and the first peaceful march–in which I marched, peacefully, surrounded by like minds. After this weeding and … Continue reading
Posted in Adult writing, books, Faction, Fiction, Writing
Tagged #45, 2017, books, California, Climate Change, Cute animal pix, Earth, Facebook, Family, history, humanity, JK Rowling, life, Michelle Obama, NRDC, NY Times, Othello, Planned Parenthood, Shakespeare, Tribbles, WaPo, weeding, writing
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Hearts
Just. So. Simply. Timely. And simply nice.
Posted in Adult writing, books, Children's Books, Faction, Fiction, Poetry, Writing
Tagged 2017, animals, California, dolphin heart, Earth, Family, hearts, humanity, life, Literature, Thanks, valentine's day, writing
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On Rejection
Recently I was lucky enough to have a conversation with someone I deeply respect and I was moaning a little about rejections I’ve received lately. The person suggested I stop calling them ‘rejections’ and refer to them instead as ‘No … Continue reading
Posted in Children's Books, Fiction, Writer's Angst, Writing, Writing Progress, Writing Tips
Tagged 2016, Critique, life, life advice, Literature, rejection, writing
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Brief Reverie (w/Iron)
As I was ironing my husband’s dress shirts last night: channeled a story about 3 lifelong friends who unfriend each other on Facebook due to arguments over whether certain basic inalienable rights should be basic and inalienable at all (buying … Continue reading
Posted in Faction, Fiction, Writing
Tagged 2016, climate science, dictator, dystopian fiction, Facebook, Mother Teresa, NRDC, snowmen, women's fiction
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Boo On Drugs
I wrote in a frenzy from 10 a.m. to 1:00p.m., then lay down for a nap before zooming to fetch my 3rd grader from school, but my iPhone was on mute, so I didn’t hear the alarm, but I did hear, … Continue reading
Posted in books, Fiction, Poetry, Writing
Tagged 2016, art, books, Emily Dickinson, Family, Halloween, hope, humanity, life, Literature, Los Angeles, Muses, Sexy Mama, Ventura Blvd., Zen
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Louise Penny
Where has Louise Penny been all my life? I was completely not swept up, but vacuumed into A Great Reckoning and have since been binge reading the Chief Inspector Gamache novels–but I have to say, so far the other books … Continue reading
Posted in Adult writing, books, Fiction, Poetry, Writing
Tagged 2016, art, books, Canada, Chief Inspector Gamache, Dogs, Literature, Louise Penny, Murder mysteries, Muses, Three Pines, writing
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Ann Patchett’s COMMONWEALTH (In Percentages)
Because Maria Semple stated (in an article I read a few days ago) that she is planning to read Ann Patchett’s new novel, ‘Commonwealth’, I (who had no idea Ann Patchett had a new novel coming out, ‘Bel Canto’ still on my … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, Writer quotes, Writing, WTF
Tagged 1970's, 2016, Ann Patchett, Commonwealth, Divorce, fiction writing, Maria Semple, novels, State of Wonder, writing
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Psychic
Somehow I now live in a neighborhood where the man next door is perfectly okay with hanging a sign from his rented eaves. PSYCHIC SERVICES, the sign declares–bold white on not-so-bold, pretty or eye-catching puce–followed by a phone number. When … Continue reading
Posted in Adult writing, books, Faction, Fiction, Writing, WTF
Tagged 2016, chaos, fiction writing, gypsy curses, kittens, personal goals, psychics, writing
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Suckers Galore
I’ve read, of late: All The Light We Cannot See, The Luminaries (I sense a pun), Station Eleven, The Orphan Master’s Son (I sense a rhyme–no, it is, it is a rhyme), Plastic Ocean: How a Sea Captain’s Chance Discovery … Continue reading
Posted in books, Fiction
Tagged 2015, fiction writing, mollusks, non-fiction writing, Oceans, Octopuses, Sy Montgomery, The Soul of an Octopus, writing
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Business As Usual, Please
My dad passed away last September, although ‘passed away’ sounds too ‘death-lite’ for the actual event. If you’ve never been at the bedside of someone moving on, all I can say is, it’s probably not possible to brace yourself for the experience. Try … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, Writing
Tagged 2015, books, Earth, fiction writing, Last Tango in Halifax, life, Literature, Los Angeles, writer's angst, writer's block, writing
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Breaks
What I love about Spring Break? For a week I am Fun Mama–instead of: get dressed, brush your teeth, grab your Spidey hoodie, let’s go, go, go, homework, karate, shower time!, etc. It’s nice to be all: Ooooh—let’s scooter around … Continue reading
Posted in Children's Books, Faction, Fiction, Me and Us, Writing
Tagged 2015, beach, children's literature, domestics, fiction writing, life, Los Angeles, ocean, Parenting, poetry, writing
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Overcast In The Valley
Craving a view, I rode the escalator to the 3rd and final floor of that Macy’s and speculated on valley through tinted windows grand enough for a museum. No thunderheads. Not the merest ribbon of blue sky. No sun. Mounds … Continue reading
Posted in Faction, Fiction, Poetry, Writing
Tagged 2014, fiction writing, life, Los Angeles, poetry, writer's angst
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Never Fails
Text conversation with my writing mentor as I attempted to send her crucial re-written novel pages before her plane took off, pages I was anxious for her input on so that I could meet a writing deadline ASAP, pages she … Continue reading
Posted in Children's Books, Fiction, middle grade, Steps In Promotion, Writer's Angst
Tagged 2014, children's literature, Conures, fiction writing, life, personal goals, writer's angst, writing
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Mornings Become Them (Birds Edition)
615am–I get out of bed to let the dog outside and get back in bed forgetting to let the dog back in and he barks and I shoot out of bed not wanting the dog to wake the first grader … Continue reading
Posted in Adult writing, Avoiding My Writing, books, Children's Books, dog, Faction, Fiction, middle grade, Parakeet, Pets, Poetry, Writer's Angst, Writing, Writing Progress, WTF
Tagged 2014, cats, children's literature, Conures, dog, domestic bliss, fiction writing, First Graders, Freelance Writing, life, Los Angeles, poetry, writer's angst, writing
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All Schedules Thrown
And, suddenly, for a week, until summer camp started, the newly ex-Kindergartner and I were face to face over our morning pancakes, not an elementary school deadline in sight. “Let’s go to the beach!” he suggested. We did. “Museums!” We went there, … Continue reading
Posted in Avoiding My Writing, Faction, Fiction, Writing
Tagged 2014, Balboa Island, beach, children's literature, domestics, Hurricane Harbor, middle grade writing, personal goals, writing, Yelp
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I-5 Pretty
In a previous post I regaled our drive from Los Angeles to parts further Northeast known as Tracy, Stockton and Sacramento. Namely, that interminable length from the end of the grapevine to whatever that KABOOM exit is that has Corral in … Continue reading
Posted in Avoiding My Writing, books, Fiction, Writing, WTF
Tagged 2014, CA, children's literature, fiction writing, I-5, life, Los Angeles, Sacremento, storms, Tracy, writing
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Spring Break Snoozing (Wide Awake Edition)
During this luscious week of no school for the Kindergartner, we snooze well. Except when we are awakened from chasm-sleep somewhere between 2a.m. and maybe 4:30a.m.—after the bars have closed, but before the rooster across the alley busts its lungs—after we’ve … Continue reading
Posted in Adult writing, Avoiding My Writing, books, Children's Books, dog, Faction, Fiction, Me and Us, middle grade, Pets, Poetry, Writer's Angst, Writing, Writing Progress, WTF
Tagged 2014, cats, children's literature, dog, domestic bliss, fiction writing, Kindergarten, Kindle Fire, labrador, life, Los Angeles, middle grade writing, personal goals, poetry, writing
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PB Rippey Writes 
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