Have I mentioned we did this entire road trip to Iowa in two days? Mother and I pack it in, we really do. We’re the kind of tourists that cram four major sites into a single day and still have … Continue reading
A Pike’s Peak in Iowa? I will admit that when growing up and living on the west coast, from the San Francisco Bay Area to Oregon’s Willamette Valley, I never in a million years thought of Iowa as a tourist … Continue reading
Some scenes from Whitewater State Park, a popular park near Rochester, Minnesota, in late fall. This is the Trout Run Trail, a 1 mile trail that wanders along a living trout stream (not so many of those these days). This section … Continue reading
At Great River Bluff’s State Park, near Winona, Minnesota, mother and I hiked along a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi river this weekend. One part of the park is chock full of maples in full color. The park is full … Continue reading
Minnesota is known for its rivers, particularly the Mississippi, which starts here in an idyllic park way up north. But closer to the twin cities we have the officially wild and scenic St. Croix River. The other day I took … Continue reading
Time for a local interlude between my Caribbean posts. The twin cities Dragon Boat Festival was this last weekend on Lake Phalen in St. Paul, a pan-Asian celebration involving lots of dancers, lots of food, and dragon boat races. Brought … Continue reading
Specific advice on submitting to literary magazines is hard to come by on the internet, perhaps because most are focused on publishing book-length fiction. But I found this author’s blog helpful in a general sense to orienting oneself to the … Continue reading
It poured here in the Twin Cities today, and it was that kind of rain that you know comes out of an invisible spray nozzle, pointed straight at your face. A good time to visit the Como Park Zoo and … Continue reading
Taking a break from posting my Caribbean pictures to update you all on the current situation here in Minnesota. It appears that summer is actually here, and is actually quite pleasant, and all reports are that this sort of thing … Continue reading
Spent some time recharging my creative juices in one of Minnesota’s many state parks last weekend. Big Woods State Park is a fragment of the original Eastern Broadleaf Forest that once covered over 3,000 square miles in the southern third … Continue reading
I’ve been sweating through a semester-long class and now that it’s over, I feel like I’ve been let out of the fields and allowed a glass of lemonade. The blog has taken a backseat to the work, unfortunately. But here … Continue reading
Muskrats are common in the Upper Midwest, and here in Minnesota every pond or lake has at least one. As suburbs spill further and further into pristine territory, human beings are increasingly finding themselves coexisting with these creatures. Roughly the … Continue reading
Last spring I stopped by the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota. Ely is a remote outfitter town on the edge of the even more remote Boundary Waters Wilderness Area, and the Wolf Center is a sparkling newish facility where … Continue reading
Now that I’ve mapped the heck out of my novel-in-progress, I’m settling back to the writing itself. And I’m considering my darkest character, and how to flesh her out. The term “villain” is sometimes one we shy away from when … Continue reading
Winter roars on in the colder climes of the world, and so a reminder of summer is in order. The holidays have been unbelievably hectic here in the Northern Word House, so consider this our belated holiday card, with seasonally … Continue reading