Love to Doodle? Have I Got a Class for You! ✍️

Have you always liked to doodle? Wish you could draw more in a low-key, freeing, self-directed way? Like making marks on the page for the pleasure of it? Now that summer has arrived, I’m super excited to share that I’ll be teaching a super fun online class in August. I’d love to work with you and a friend; mark your calendars. Sign-ups now open. 🥳

Here’s the scoop on my new four-week class, Drawing Doodle Comics for Fun and Enrichment: clickety-click.

Class description: COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Love to doodle or draw but haven’t drawn for a while? Or want to learn a new skill that is rich in narrative and creativity-building skills? Find comics entertaining and interesting? Want to depict memorable small moments from your own life or a character’s life for the joy of recording memories and everyday absurdities that amuse you? Or learn a few techniques that pleasantly blur the lines between drawing and diary? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, welcome aboard!

Nonfiction comics are a delightful blend of story compression, dialogue, drawings, and theme. Comics are an ever-malleable form that can encompass journal entries, a comic strip, experimentation with writing about the self as a character, and so much more.

Photography Published at Flowers of the Field! 🥳

Excellent artistic news! I’ve had a poem and photography published at the most recent issue of Flowers of the Field! From delicious, decadent chocolates to flowers to spools of thread and more, it’s a pleasure to get to share these shots from my camera. 📸Their next issue has a “joy” themed: clickety-click for guidelines. To this continued creative life!

Exciting News! Cover Reveal and Pre-Order Link! 💃

Super delighted to get to share the gorgeous cover for my latest poetry collection, The Price of Breathing.

Read more about the book’s plot and pre-order today at this link: Clickety-click to Vine Leaves Press!

Can’t wait to share this book for its book birthday in September, and many thanks to Vine Leaves Press and multitalented publisher Jessica Bell for this amazing cover design. I couldn’t be happier! Catch more of Jessica’s fabulous designs—I heartily recommend her work if you’re looking for a book designer or have a friend who is.

My Short Story Published at Grande Dame Literary & Art Journal 🥳

Thrilled to announce that my short story, “Mama’s Favorite,” was published at Grande Dame Literary & Art Journal. ✍️

Here’s an opening excerpt:

"She wanted you to have it,” Randall says. He holds it out, between us.

What can you say to that?

I move my hip from blocking the doorway. “Come in,” I say.

I let him scooch around me. He looks really good—he’s lost a few pounds and just had a haircut. And he smells even better: woodsy, warm, and clean. I can’t take a chance he’ll “accidentally” touch his hand against mine in the hand-over.

The cutting board is made of walnut. I already have two: one I got for my first apartment before we met, one I got when I cleaned out Nan’s house, but I don’t tell Randall that. I flash back to the first Thanksgiving we went over to Mama Lainie’s. She put me to work paring and dicing the celery, which was a relief because that’s about all I knew how to do. Mama Lainie was always great that way—she could size you up without making you feel weird about it and place you exactly where you’d do your best work.

Randall sits it on the counter next to the juicer.

“You got new Formica,” he says. Never content to just let it be. “When’d you get that?”

Clickety-click to read it all (and check out the other amazing stories they publish): here

Photo courtesy of Debbie Widjaja on Unsplash free-stock

My Poem Featured 😊👍

Such a joy to be part of my friend Lee Ann Berardi Smith’s wonderful videos that celebrate National Poetry Month! Lee Ann has shared other poems of mine going back to the early days of the pandemic, and it’s such a pleasure to hear her read from my work.

Check out this video, where she reads my poem, “Matteo Runs Ahead,” as well as her other fantastic videos celebrating the art of poetry and many talented poets this month.

Clickety-Click

Free-stock Photo courtesy of Daiji Umemoto on Unsplash

Far Villages Poetry-Craft Anthology--April Sale! 🥳

A few years ago, I had the great pleasure of being included in a wonderful poetry craft-essay volume, called Far Villages: Welcome Essays for New & Beginner Poets. The volume was edited by talented Abayomi Animashaun through the marvelous Black Lawrence Press.

If you’re a poet, an educator, an interested reader who wants to learn more about the poetic craft, and/or are looking for a gift that’s sure to bring much inspiration to the poets in your life, I highly recommend this anthology. It’s the kind of book you’ll want to keep on a close shelf to page through for motivation and ideas.

Get your copy now—it’s on sale through this month while supplies last. Clickety-click! Write on!

Great April News: Publication of "It's the Kind of Thing" 🎊

Cotton-candy-colored blossoms and publication: sweet treats of April

So pleased to share that my nature poem. “It’s the Kind of Thing,” has been published in the current, April issue of The Bluebird Word.

Here are the opening lines, and clickety click to read the rest. Also, check out the work of the marvelous, talented fellow writers in the issue, including dear friend Antonia Albany’s wonderful Spent Water Balloons.

To this continued writing life! ✍️

“It’s the Kind of Thing”

if I wrote it you might
not believe me, but I’ll
write it anyway.

For a second, I mistook
riffs of an electric guitar
on the radio
of a passing car

for a stray cat or kitten
and looked up
from my book
for a tail and a lean cat needing care.

Read the rest and the entire issue at: The Bluebird Word.

Poetry Publication This Month and More Forthcoming! 🥳

Splendid news! This month, I have poetry at both Flowers of the Field and New Contexts 8: An Anthology Check out these brief excerpts of a poem from each literary magazine and then hop on over to the literary-magazine websites to read the rest and the excellent pieces by talented writers in each issue.

Excerpt from Flowers of the Field:

“All the Women Who Write Letters in Oil Paintings”

by Vermeer and other Dutch masters

call out to me today. I know what the internet

says about symbolizing interiority and love, but

what I see most when I see their pensive faces, the lull

of the lemon light splashing in from a window their desks

face, their fountain pens poised above

pristine paper with wax and seals surrounding, at ready,

probably not what the painters wanted me to notice:

uninterrupted time…

Excerpt from New Contexts 8: An Anthology:

“For my nieces, 13 and almost 11, as they embark on learning the potter’s wheel”

I always wanted to sit where you will soon sit.

The closest I came at your age was

making pinch pots—tidy, slightly lop-

sided, shallow dishes we in regular art period

glazed with our brushes, dunking into plastic jars of glaze,

after an afternoon at a nicked wooden group table.

I recall pushing the pads of my thumbs

against the damp, cool clay, trying to stretch it out,

then pressing it smooth into a thinning barrier to air…

I have some other pieces that will be published in two additional journals this spring. Stay tuned, and write on! ✍️

Photo courtesy of Photo by Patti Black on Unsplash.

An Article & A Poem Published!😊

Excited to announce that:

Doodle by yours truly.

·         An article I wrote (about writing more without stressing about it) was published in the WOW March 2026 Markets Newsletter.

·         A poem of mine about a science toy, “Newton’s Cradle,” was accepted and published at a great new venue, Flowers of the Field.

·         Looking for a very fun new online class? Check out: Your Time to Write! Starts Monday, March 16th. Sign-ups open!

To this continued writing life!😊

Courtesy of Women on Writing

It's Your Time to Write in 2026! 😊

Marvelous news! Announcing my new, mixed-genre, 4-week online course Your Time to Write in March 2026! Sign-ups open now.

Invest in your writing afresh in 2026. Writing classes also make great holiday gifts for the authors in your life. 🎁

More info: COURSE DESCRIPTION: Feeling frustrated and wish you had more time to devote to your write? Want some exercises to get yourself rolling creating new pieces? Want to write but feel a little unsure how to (re)start? Working on a long project that’s stalled and want to generate fresh, short, fun creative material to get your muse moving again? Good news: if any of this description sounds like you, you have more time to write than you might think, and investing even minutes a day to your writing adds up well over the course of a month. This class is for you!

To peruse the syllabus and sign up: Your Time to Write Clickety-Click.

Art courtesy of WOW! Women on Writing