“I am over 70 when I reread Memento Mori, now with renewed interest and appreciation.”
Muriel Spark’s dark and snarky novel about death and old age delighted me when I first read it, but now it takes on extra pungency, and writing about it in the context of my own experience seemed the thing to do.
I’m happy to say that “Spoiler Alert: They All Died” was published in the excellent literary magazine Epiphany.
“Food, glorious food….” The line from Oliver may well be my mantra, and food remains a frequent theme in my writing, eliciting, as it does, vignettes from life past and present, fact and fantasy. I’m in good company–Virginia Woolf had a lot to say about it too, and the title of my latest published piece comes from her.
“What Was Eaten” was published in February in The Festival Review. With thanks to Eva, not just witty and wise, but a constant champion of my life and writing. And Ava, you’re in here too, though not by name….
“My ruminations don’t come preformed in neat complete sentences with subjects, verbs and objects, beginning with capital letters and ending with periods…”
“Punctuation” was published in January at Burningword Literary Journal – read it here.
Chicken is meat, right? So I’ll never know why people so often ask if I eat it when I declare myself a fish-eating vegetarian. That and other observations are the essence of my essay “Pescatarian,” recently published in Miracle Monocle. Read it here!
I wrote about my orchids almost a year ago, in the euphoria of their first rebloom. I originally called it “Sherry Baby,” later confessed to “Careless Love.” Now both orchids are in full bloom again–clearly I’ve finally got the knack. I think the concentrated at-home time of this past year has something to do with it, heightened awareness of my immediate surroundings.
Here’s “Careless Love,“ published in CP Quarterly (formerly Crepe & Penn). Unfortunately you have to scroll to pages 76-77–if there’s a way to link to specific pages, it’s not in my skill set.
We’re marking the one-year anniversary of the closures and quarantines of Covid-19. The pandemic still dominates people’s lives and minds. Writers are still writing about it–how can we not?–myself included.
My latest contribution is “Gray Hour,” linked here and published in a “writing corona” feature of The Headlight Review. It recalls last summer–uncharted days, hot afternoons, wildfires exacerbating fear and uncertainty–when we sequestered on our canyonside patio, beverages in hand, flipping peanuts to the mice and squirrels.
A remote workshop on etymology (thanks, Natasha!), several enticing online words of the day, and last summer’s quarantine-induced backyard bird study combined to inspire “When Words Were Birds.” I’m delighted that it’s found a home with the literary journal Parhelion, a marvelous word itself, meaning “a bright spot in the sky appearing on either side of the sun, formed by refraction of sunlight through ice crystals high in the earth’s atmosphere.” Read it here!
My portrait in words about an old friend and old times was published in A Year in Ink, Volume 13, the annual print anthology of San Diego Writers, Ink. Now you can read it here.
Eating has presented challenges for everyone this past year and has been one of the biggest topics of conversation. I seized the opportunity to write about it, and my abecedarium “Quesadillas in Quarantine” is recently published in the national literary magazine MORIA.
My hardships have been nonexistent, and I’m aware of my good fortune while so many have suffered so much. Best wishes to all for good health and good eating as we stagger into another difficult year.
Today’s Thursday, and tonight I’ll have pizza, as I have on alternate Thursdays throughout the age of Covid; and that’s what I wrote about–more or less–in a single-sentence mind gush that muses and fuses on the way things are and how we adapt, because what else can we do?
“Pizza on Thursday, or, the isness of what is” is recently published in the Fall-Winter issue of Sleet Magazine.
