Today is my oldest girl’s 30th birthday and in the spirit of tradition, it’s time for Sarah’s birth story. I was 29 when Sarah was born, which means that I was in the height of our antique dealing life, jumping on and off the back of our pickup as we loaded for Canton Trades Days,…
Tag: flash essay
Saturday Traffic on the Sunset Strip, LA
Off to a birthday party for our dear friend David Bode, fellow Texan who has made LA his home. Unfortunately, we did not factor traffic on a Saturday! We may be substantially late. This is par for the course when you live here. Still, this is much more bogged than I would have thought. Alas…we…
Prompt: The Word “Transparency”
Transparency is defined as “the condition of being transparent,” which means being able to see through something or someone. Many spiritual leaders say that transparency is part of being enlightened. What you see is what is there, no more, no less. The government speaks of transparency in governing, meaning no secrets, and yet knowing that…
Writing Prompt: Mundane Occurrences.
Every morning I wake up and open the back door for my dog, Cordelia. Then I go into the kitchen, fill her bowl up with food and get her fresh water. Then I check to see if my cat William has fresh food and water, and if not, then I fill those up, too. After…
A Memory of My Brother, George
One early evening in summer, my older brother George and I headed off to the Little League baseball field where he was going to play a game and I was going to watch. He was eleven and I was eight. I was barefooted and wore shorts and a thin top; he had on his baseball…
Catnapper in the Neighborhood?
This morning at 6 am I looked out my front window on the porch and there I saw Charlie, our tabby cat, who disappeared six months ago. By the time I deposited Cordelia out back and ran back up to the front porch, Charlie was gone. Again. I was elated, however, since Charlie was not…
Gratitude
My older sister died recently from complications from dementia, which developed as a result of a severe concussion from a bike accident 25 years ago. I expect if she could talk to me now, she’d say that she’s grateful to have died when she did since her health over the past eight years had slowly…
Writing Prompt: Novel readers: I need your help!
I have written about four chapters of a new novel, but now I’m stuck. I want to have a different kind of structure – you know like Fried Green Tomatoes, where it’s a story inside a story, or Water for Elephants where there are two stories at the same time: the old man’s current life…
Prompt: My Sister’s Eulogy Complete with a Few Jokes
Good afternoon. My name is Len Leatherwood and I am Leslie’s younger sister. On behalf of my entire family, I’d like to thank you for coming today to help us celebrate Leslie’s life. We are all here because we loved her. So, thank you. Leslie. How do I best describe her? First, my sister had…
Driving Back to LA
It’s almost 10 pm and we’re an hour south of Las Vegas driving in the rain. It is 37 degrees outside and we are heading home along with lots of folks who’ve been in Vegas all weekend. Liz has law classes tomorrow and because she is in an accelerated 2 year program, she can’t miss…
20 Minutes a Day 