top of page
Search


I Still Believe in Welcome
Whether they are wandering the streets of Panama or fearful in our own neighborhoods, our response to people who need refuge is important.
Mar 175 min read


Did We Make It Through?
Whatever comes around next, I’ll have a book by my side. Reading has saved me in so many ways.
Mar 103 min read

Kinfolk: An Update
I’m not sure how many of my family members will read my book in its entirety, and that’s okay. I handed everyone a book with a disclaimer.
Mar 34 min read


Have Faith and Keep Writing
Finding your people means writing your truth, even if no one reads it. In Oklahoma, snow doesn’t usually hang around for long, but we are...
Feb 213 min read


The Procrastination Projects
I'm giving away a few finished crafts so I can write. A few years ago, during the pandemic, I discovered my compulsion for list-making....
Nov 21, 20243 min read


Hope is a Revolutionary Act
I feel hopeful, which seems to make no sense, but here I am - choosing it, hanging on to it, and sharing it.
Nov 18, 20243 min read


Creativity at Any Age
Those of us who are inching upward in age can be our own worst enemy, especially when it comes to creative projects.
Nov 15, 20244 min read


Comparison: Looking Around
No one makes blinkers for writers. We can’t cloister ourselves off in a room and happily write, never knowing what lies outside our door, ex
Nov 12, 20246 min read


Pearls
It's the morning of November 12, 2022, and this is a story about my birthday girl and her pearls. And a mother who sometimes loses the...
Nov 12, 20223 min read


Distracted
I had a writing goal for last week to finish the structural outline for a memoir about how loss shapes families. Then I found a lost dog....
Aug 15, 20223 min read


Three Decades Later and a Few Thoughts on Marriage
On my wedding day, at exactly 4:03 p.m., my dad and I began our walk down the aisle, arm in arm, forgetting everything we had been told...
Jun 3, 20223 min read


Dinner, Then Stories
Saturday nights, everyone in our family made it a point to be home for dinner with my dad. He would walk over from his house and stay...
May 26, 20223 min read


Shipping News
I love to ship things. That's likely the nerdiest thing you've ever heard, but let me clarify: I love to ship things that people have...
May 20, 20222 min read


The House is a Parking Lot
My Granny Pearl thought her husband, my Papa, gave too much money to the church. This was an ongoing conflict between the two of them,...
May 12, 20224 min read

The Book Backstory, Part 2
Every book has a story. The idea for Move the Needle came soon after we started Storia Editing and Publishing. My collaborators and I are...
Apr 14, 20223 min read


Martha's Journey (Or, Why You Should Buy My Book)
When she was 12 years-old, Martha was forced to leave her biological family in the Volta Region of Ghana and move halfway across the...
Apr 2, 20222 min read


The Book Backstory, Part 1
On my 32nd wedding anniversary, I had a breakdown. It had nothing to do with my husband, my marriage, or my failure to get him a gift or...
Mar 20, 20224 min read

Move the Needle
When I was a little girl, I wrote stories on rough sheets of unlined construction paper my mother bought at Gibson’s Five and Dime store....
Feb 24, 20224 min read


Goodbye, Grace
I guess everyone thinks their dog is the best. We told her this a hundred times in the week before we said goodbye, and we meant it....
Jul 28, 20213 min read


My Mother in Blurry Shadows
There is an app called Blur Photo that allows you to safely post a photo that will, no surprise, blur faces. This Mother’s Day, I...
May 8, 20215 min read
bottom of page