My Mother, the Grizzly
Green with envy, I was watching the floatie-free kids swim in the deep end of the public pool when I saw my nine-year-old brother, Joshua, begin floundering and churning the water like a seal caught in the jaws of a
A Closet Full of Memories
I come from a long, proud line of wedding-napkin-saving sentimentalists and have an uncanny memory for details everybody else knows better to discard. Yesterday, these two factors did not bode well when I decided to purge my closet and myself of
Leaving the Light
Dipping beneath the cedar tree a spider web -- as usual -- casts a silky netting over my face. I peel it off and pick my way up the cinder blocks to Miss Oberah’s sagging green porch. Beetles the color
The Death of Mardi Gras
My brother, Josiah Caleb Miller, was birthed on August 3, 1997: the same day our nocturnal rooster, Mardi Gras, suffocated in my father’s beat-up Dodge Ram. Someone Father had built a barn for gave him a beautiful white rooster with a
“Gotta write! Gotta write!”
This past Friday I was sitting on the couch, wanting to break out and tap around the living room when those in Singin' in the Rain did, not even contemplating anything other than turning my mind into mush for two
Embracing the Change of Time
Today, in the darkness of early morning, we sent Time spiraling forward. At no other point in the year do we ever so purposefully embrace its passage, and at no other point in our lives do we ever take such
The Perks of Being a Manual Laborer
Right now, if college degrees were cashed in, everyone would be walking around with heads full of knowledge and handfuls of change. No longer are students being given freshly-minted dreams along with their freshly-minted diplomas. Instead, they find themselves applying
Avoiding Writing Whiplash
This past month I learned two things: It’s not easy writing a novel without an outline, and it’s not easy driving a car without a speedometer. (Or, for that matter, with one. My first speeding ticket, at 16, involved a Cops-worthy
A Story No One Is Left To Tell
Even when I was little I was fascinated by graveyards. Not the new ones, mind you, with their tinkling wind chimes and fake flowers scattered over the grounds like Mardi Gras confetti. I loved the ancients that were old and
Speaking of Zebras…
With a mischievous glint in his hazel eyes, my husband said, "Come here--I have to show you something." Always susceptible to intrigue, I followed him into our bedroom. The lights were dimmed, and I could see an odd flickering coming