For Teachers & Parents

What Brings You Joy?

For both writers, and teachers of writers, on the subject of “what do we write about and why”… I have a wonderful coaching client, who has recently finished her first novel (a fantastic and emotionally moving story, beautifully told, about a middle school girl recovering from grief). We were talking about what she would write… Read more »

Kindness in Action

Just a short post-Thanksgiving post… I spent a part of Small Business Saturday at a charming indie bookstore – Wheatgrass Books – in Livingston, Montana (fictional setting for Carry Me Home), where kids doing community service work were busy making origami paper cranes. They were part of a donation event to send Blessing Bags with… Read more »

Three Ways to Honor the Season

Saturday November 13th was “World Kindness Day”. It seems awfully narrow (to me, anyway) to confine kindness to a single day. I would love it if we’d at least acknowledge the season of Thanksgiving as the season of giving kindness and joy. And heaven knows we could use a lot of both in our lives…. Read more »

BOOdles of Fun

Yes, I know – Halloween is over. But it does feel like this Halloween was even more of a needed treat than usual, doesn’t it? As a member of the Spooky Middle Grade authors group, I believe that kids love spooky books for good reason: learning how to be scared of things when you can… Read more »

New Author Visits For New Times

Teachers, librarians, and parents of homeschooled kids – I’ve revised my “Speaking” page to reflect the fact that I won’t be traveling for a while. I hope you’ll check out my offerings to breathe a little “authorly” depth into your school program. It seems that life has changed for us all, and isn’t going to… Read more »

Animals In Yellowstone – Part 2

Wolves. Humans have a complicated relationship with wolves. They may be ancestrally related to man’s best friend, the dog, but… Wolves are variously described as scary, beautiful, intelligent, cagey, dangerous, and fascinating. The gray wolf is the top predator in the Yellowstone ecosystem, and has been the bane of ranchers and farmers since Europeans first… Read more »