Shamrocks and Bellflowers — For the past few years, I’ve tried flowers requiring part sun, part shade in the window box outside my office. But it’s on the back side of our house under a tree that gets bigger every year, casting more shade every day. …

Focus on the long-term — Short-term vs long-term writers I have never been fast at anything. I think about things. Worry about the details. Focus on the process. I laugh — or, depending on the day — I SNARL when I read about people who can write a blog post in twenty minutes. …

Because pink is a great spirit-lifter — Fresh flowers make me smile. Their colors, shapes, and scents just do something good for my soul. One of the joys of flower gardening is that you can create bouquets and bring them into the house, or create them for people who need a pick-me-up. …

Five reasons to plant — Bee Balm is a common plant, indigenous to the Eastern United States, and it’s great for flower gardeners. It is actually “Monarda,” a member of the mint family, and it comes in reds, purples, pinks, and whites. If you don’t have Bee Balm already, then you might want to consider…

The result of one daughter’s mission — ONE: A particular man was the inspiration for Father’s Day William Jackson Smart was quite a guy. He fought for both sides of the Civil War. (Yes. Both sides.) Born in Arkansas in 1842, William Smart enlisted in the Confederate Army and drove a supply wagon for the “Rebels” until the Northern Army captured him in 1862 at the Battle…

Visuals work — The perennial question: how to promote your book By 2017, self-published books had increased to more than 1 million titles, and that number has grown dramatically in the last five years. The exponential increase of books has created an oft-lamented problem: How do authors of small press or self-published books draw attention to their books? How do you…

Read This Scorched Earth — A different kind of Civil War novel Forty years ago, I read John Jake’s North and South trilogy about the Civil War. Before then, I read Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind and went SEVEN times to watch the film at the local dollar theater with my best junior-high- school friend, Sandy Budd. But I can’t remember…

Five Practical (and Pretty) Reasons — You can never have too many flowers! Call us old-fashioned, but both Bill and I think that traditional window boxes filled with flowers are a beautiful accent to a home. Every spring, I plant my baby plants in the window boxes under our kitchen windows, waiting expectantly for them to fill out. …

Cate Quinn’s book — One man, three wives, shunned and living in an isolated desert. What could possibly go wrong? Cate Quinn’s 2021 novel, Black Widows, is a dark mystery-thriller. Really dark. Various reviewers called it “tantalizing and troubling,” a “brilliantly twisted crime novel,” and “a tense portrayal of an unconventional family.” Termed “domestic noir,” Black Widows is a novel you won’t forget, even if you’re troubled by it.