I just walked into my house after about an hour of gardening, doing something else creative so my mind can rest before tackling another scene in my work-in-progress. My house smelled like my old piano … [Read more...]
Holiday Traditions and Irish Encounter
On Thanksgiving night, while they’re still full from the day’s feast, Ellen and her family relax in front of one of their favorite movies, It’s a Wonderful Life. I took this tradition straight from my … [Read more...]
Penn’s Favorite Sports Teams
Penn Davenport, the protaganist in Mars...With Venus Rising, grew up in western Pennsylvania. That means she’s part of the Steel Curtain. She pulls for the Pittsburgh Steelers. America’s team, as my … [Read more...]
Brown Sugar Pecan Pie
In Mars...With Venus Rising, Penn’s aunts, Winnie and Jancie, make their pecan pies with corn syrup. Most Southerners seem to follow suit. Because of all the bad press corn syrup has been … [Read more...]
Going Green
In Irish Encounter, Ellen's daughter, Olivia, leads her family to conserve water by catching run off cold water. This plot point is a real chapter straight from the Dougherty household. During our … [Read more...]
Favorite Trips
Summer seems to be the season for lots of travel. Ellen’s story opens in Galway, Ireland, one of my favorite cities in the world, and I’ve traveled to Paris, New York, London, Toronto, Washington, … [Read more...]
Recipe from Irish Encounter
In Irish Encounter, Ellen’s daughter loves her pesto recipe. Since I’m making a batch today (for someone who's coming home for the first time since March!), here’s the one I adapted for my family. … [Read more...]
Doing Hard Things
My husband and I met an acquaintance back in November who asked about our sons, sophomores in college. The man said his son had decided not to accept a scholarship to play baseball at a local college … [Read more...]
Gratitude Day by Day
A couple of weeks ago, a friend suggested keeping a gratitude journal. After I wrote entries for several days, I wished I’d started at the beginning of the year. So I decided to go back to January and … [Read more...]
Fresh Eyes
We always called it the fish pond. It’s a man-made pond hand dug by my great-grandfather out of a low, wet place on his farm. He thought everybody deserved a place to fish and wanted everybody to … [Read more...]
