I wrote this piece a few years back and it remains close to my heart. My mother died in the last week of January 2000. That day is as vivid to me now as it was then. I thought I’d share this story with you tonight since Mom is on my mind. On the day…
Tag: flash memoir
The Joys of Teaching Writing: Online and Off
I am sitting here in my living room – night outside – and I am ready to finish up my work for today. I have been busy all day, as usual, but not crazy busy. My “Flash Fiction/Memoir” online class started on Monday through Story Circle Network, so I’ve been occupied responding to students’ comments…
The Joys of Writing “Flash” and Some Reading Recommendations
I currently am teaching an online course on Flash Fiction and Flash Memoir for Story Circle Network. This subject is close to my heart since flash is one of my favorite modes of writing. For the course, I have read a lot of short-shorts both fiction and memoir and have been reminded of just how…
Flash Memoir: “High-Top” Memories
When I was growing up, I had a problem buying shoes. My feet were small and wide, and in my little Texas town of 7,000 it was not always easy finding shoes that fit me in the local shoe stores. This meant at the very least traveling 25 miles over to Sherman, which had a…
Flash Memoir: Miss Inez Inglish and Her Overgrown Yard
Miss Inez English lived on Pine Street, right around the corner from our house on 9th in my little rural Texas town. Her one-story wooden house, white with green shutters, was set far back from the road, and was obscured by a front and back lawn covered with overgrown bushes and low-hanging trees, which cast…
Flash Memoir: An Afternoon with Mr. Morgan
Mr. Morgan was a retired Episcopal priest who lived a few houses up from my family on East 9th Street in my hometown of Bonham, Texas. He and his wife, Anna, must have been in their 70’s when I was young. They both had white hair, and they walked with the stoop that comes with…
Flash Memoir: The End of an Era
“Yes, we’ll go to the State Fair next Saturday,” my father said. “We’ll take the family and drive to Dallas.” The words were right – the ones I wanted to hear – but my father’s tone was flat. I could tell he didn’t really want to go. He was reluctantly agreeing to the trip only…
Flash Memoir Prompt: Nils and the Farm next to the Fjord
In the spring of 1975 when I was 22, my boyfriend Nick and I decided we would go to Europe after I graduated from college in June. (He was already finished with school and up for an adventure). The goal was to go for a year and the original plan (or at least the one…
Flash Memoir: November 22, 1963
I remember exactly where I was when John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. I was in my 4th grade class at Bailey Inglish Elementary School in Bonham, Texas, which is 70 miles from Dallas. I can’t remember exactly how we received the news, though I think it was over the loud-speaker. That seems insensitive…
Tribute to My Daddy
I wrote this a while back but in honor of my beloved father, I’d like to put it here on my blog today. I was blessed with a fine father who knew the value of love. “Have I told you today how much I love you?” This was a question my father asked me every…
20 Minutes a Day 