A New Book and a Great Blue Heron

...even this year, as my country teeters toward autocracy.

What I’m Reading

The author is a writer friend and this is her first book, an “insider’s” story of growing up in postwar Germany, interspersed with stories from her mother, who was a child at the time, and her grandmother, who had to move her children around the country while her husband fought on the eastern front. A botanist and professor, Coenen intersperses the personal with the scientific. Did you know there are unexploded, live bombs under German cities to this day?

What I’m Writing

I’m plugging away at the final revisions of my second time travel novel, Time Is a Pilgrim. I hope to have this one out in time for the winter holidays. There will be a special offer for my Substack followers! Meanwhile, here’s a little taste:

“The woman was quite tall, and her skin was dark like the Romany people I had so recently insulted. Why was she here, with Jadwiga, who stood almost as tall as she, both casting loving glances toward me?”

As you might know from the first book, Where the Stork Flies, I am fascinated by women’s spirituality. Maybe you are too?

What I’m Crafting

Yesterday afternoon, I made a rookie mistake. I have been quilting for over thirty years, and have made multiple quilts of various sizes. I took out a half-finished table runner with a lot of piecing squares, where “small print” fabric is recommended. But when I began to put the squares together, I saw that the large prints I had chosen were chopped up. The effect was … well, ugly. And dizzy- making.

So I went out and got a latte. Then I reflected in my journal. I am at the stage of quilting where I can recognize a mistake in fabric choice instead of sewing up a mishmash and wondering why it doesn’t look good. And this, too, is the stage I’m at in my writing: I can see where it needs fixing. I’m not a rookie anymore, but I still go back for a visit.

How about you? Do you ever make “rookie mistakes?”

Where I’m Walking

This afternoon was a perfect fall day, one of many this month, here in Southeastern Pennsylvania. The leaves were blowing off the trees, mostly yellow and brown. We haven’t had much rain this year, so there’s very little red. On the trail crossing a paved bridge, we spotted a great blue heron standing in the middle of the creek. She was a giant! We watched as she turned her head, looking for prey, and maybe gauging if we were far enough away for her to stay put. We left her to it and walked on.