Window Star

During World War I, British and German soldiers put down their weapons to celebrate the holiday spirit together, in a remarkable event known as "the Christmas Truce." All of them earned their blue stars and way too many earned sliver and glod stars as well.

New York Blues

Should there be specialized Holloween celebrations in Greenwich and Dulwich? Should pigs stay away from Nottingham, Birmingham, and Buckingham? Is the only reason one comes to Cambridge is to cross the bridge? How many prople play chess in Winchester and Chester?

Looking for Writing Contests?

The Writer magazine list of contests with deadlines from tomorrow to the end of 2021.
Mary Heather Noble won the Creative Nonfiction "The Human Face of Sustainability" essay contest for "Acts of Courage." She received $10,000 and publication in Creative Nonfiction.

Home

The home in poetry can be a fabled, dreamed about place, the location of childhood remembrances, or the physical remainder of a days only recently past.

Attack of the Poetry Virus

This is the poem I wrote many years ago. It is made up of samples of the many different poetic forms but certainly not all of them. It was fun to do and I hope fun to read

Attack of the Poetry Virus: A collection of poems inspired by "A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms" by Paul B. Janeczko.

Time Well Spent

Everyone should begin by asking themselves what their actual values are, and then reflect on how they can let others live out their values. What kinds of social environments make it easier to be creative, to be honest, or to connect adventurously? We should all make a list of places where people find these things easier: camping trips, open-mics, writing groups, and so on. And then write a poem.

Good-bye

I knew it would be today. I could feel it in my bones as the gray dawn streamed through my window this morning. My last morning. My last sunrise.

The Madonna

Chapter 1

The Madonna's eyes beckoned. Such sparkle, drawing Sasha into the room even though the Madonna's rapturous gaze never left the infant Jesus in her arms. A soft light delineated the rubies circling her head, the alabaster of her skin, the pave jewels of her gown – the clearest blue diamonds Sasha'd ever seen. And yet…what was it? Something seemed…

Face One's Demons

After achieving a decisive victory over the ruthless Ipis who rule the galaxy, Dante Carloman negotiated a treaty that saved all humans from extinction. The treaty allowed the humans and their allied species to become a semi-autonomous sector on the fringe of the Ipis empire—as long as the current Ipis empress, Fravashi, remains alive.

The Sisters of Fire

This new series by Kathryn Shay follows six firefighters, ten years after they became friends in their fire academy recruit days. Each book shows their strong connection, as well as the in-depth story of one of them. Each book also addresses a contemporary issue women face, including domestic abuse, death of a spouse, divorce, blending family with career, discrimination in the workplace, and pursuing a new path in life.

A New Dawn

Now you try. Here's a word spill. Using as many of these words and your own words write several Cinquain. The more you practice, the better. As soon as you get the hang of this form, you will begin to create your own, representing what you're experiencing in your day to day life, using images from nature to connect to human nature, like Haiku.

Rustic Accommodations

I sure hope that feller didn't have a lot of enemies; Lord knows I had more than a few myself. I was wanted in 3 states for stage robbin' and such. I ain't never killed anybody before though I got blamed for it once. I didn't even kill this feller either, he kinda killed hisself through ignorance, I just failed to enlighten him of certain vital knowledge I happen to possess.

Alaric's Gold

"Sir," Private Baker threw a quick salute as he ran towards Captain McLain. "We ran into some old guy up the trail a bit. He started shouting and waving when he spotted us."

Captain Mark McLain pulled off his helmet, scratched his closely cropped hair and growled, "Well, what the hell do you think you should do about it? You know the orders. Our boys and the Brits are landing in Italy somewhere along the Amalfi coast in a few days. We can't take the chance that he'll tell the krauts there's a platoon of US Army Rangers roaming around Calabria, prepping for the invasion."

Best Tips

Lately, I've had more than one story in the works at the same time—a separate notebook for each one, or more precisely, a loose pile of notes and reference material that aspires to, one day, assemble itself into a coherent narrative.

Dark as Chocolate Released

In Dark as Chocolate, food poisoning of a former high school classmate leads FDA Investigator Connie Murphy to inspect Morerich Chocolates. On the surface, Morerich appears to be following the regulations, but she soon discovers the company is hiding illness complaints about their Delightfully Delicious candy bars. As Connie continues to dig deeper, she gets entangled in economic fraud and drug smuggling, and her efforts culminate in kidnapping and attempted murder.

Read a sample of Connie Murphy #4, Dark as Chocolate

The Wind

…the musings of a "empty nest" father, written one lazy afternoon in 1997 while visiting his daughter in Cleveland. It is, I believe, a timeless piece for any parent when the children move out.

Dad's Wooden Rabbit

I also write a lot of memoir. The following, Dad's Wooden Rabbit, was a challenge to write something from the past, but do it in the present tense. I didn't think I could do it, but the challenge presenter gave me a big thumbs up for accomplishing the task.

An Excellent Bookstore

Yesterday's Muse Inc. is an independent used and rare bookseller that has been in operation for over 10 years. We opened our first 'brick and mortar' storefront in December of 2008 in our hometown of Webster, NY.

Punctuation

The average person rarely needs to worry much about punctuation beyond a few basics. For the most part, those we communicate with don't care if the punctuation is off as long as they understand what we've written. Once we go beyond everyday communication and enter the world of business, clarity of meaning becomes more important.

LCRW Inklings

What if there was a place you could meet your fellow writers virtually? What if there was a place where you could read your draft work to others, without having to edit it or spend hours using a spell checker? What if there was a place you could help other writers with their work… no prep necessary? Now there is. Every Tuesday 8 PM