I am a writer. Therefore, I must have a day job and my day job is teaching and assisting middle school students with learning and/or physical disabilities. The toughest part of my job is deciphering what certain students cannot learn as opposed to them acting "stupid" to avoid the lesson. Slowly,… Read full post »

Chelsea dropped Whitney off at Margie's early one morning on her way to school. "She's been sniffling a little bit," Chelsea said. "I don't think it's too serious. I've had the sniffles myself."

"She'll be fine," Margie laughed, taking Whitney from her. "I've raised two children and we did okay."

"By… Read full post »

Writer’s block is one of the worst things a writer can experience. You sit and stare at the blank computer screen with an equally blank mind. No words or images pass through the gray matter between your ears, and no matter how hard you try to think of something there is,… Read full post »

 "I don't think I got the part," Philip said as he entered the apartment. "I thought the reading went well, but the director didn’t seem too interested." He took off his jacket and hung it on the back of a kitchen chair and sighed heavily as he made his way across… Read full post »

 Philip Roberts is a struggling young actor who finally gets his big break on a new TV series, The McCord's. With a successful career, beautiful wife, and a young daughter, life couldn't be better. His favorite part of the day is singing to little Whitney before tucking her into bed. Then… Read full post »

 Philip Roberts is a struggling young actor who finally gets his big break on a new TV series, The McCord's. With a successful career, beautiful wife, and a young daughter, life couldn't be better. His favorite part of the day is singing to little Whitney before tucking her into bed. Then… Read full post »

One thing I have learned about writing is that it’s much safer to write about dead people. I have written about as much non-fiction as I have fiction, but regardless of the type of writing it’s never a good idea to write about someone who is living.

The very first piece… Read full post »

It was my own careless, stupid mistake that tipped my daughter, Heather, off about Santa Claus. She was the oldest, and once I realized what I had done, I made her pinkie swear NOT to tell her brother Jeff.

I always went to great extremes to allow my children the luxury… Read full post »

Grandma Kay always put her Christmas tree next to the French doors that separated the main part of her Victorian house from the parlor-turned-beauty shop. The doors were usually closed after she finished working for the day, but at Christmas time I’d slip through the doors to look at her 1930s… Read full post »

Every year when I start decorating for Christmas I think back to the many family gatherings we had over the years with my grandparents and great-grandparents. This week I will write about Grandma and Grandpa Bultman. The emphasis will be on Grandpa and as you read you’ll understan… Read full post »

Tonight Doug built a fire in our backyard fire pit. Just before sunset I placed three lawn chairs around the fire pit and our son Jeff set a TV tray up to hold the bag of marshmallows. He found three long sticks so we could toast marshmallows. I wrapped Penny up… Read full post »

In Fort Benning, Georgia Jim prepared to leave for Vietnam.

I thought I was depressed when I left for the Army, but now I’m worse. I don’t know when I’ve felt so miserable. When this year is over I’m never leaving again. If I ever go any place, I’m… Read full post »

After receiving his draft notice from the government Jim reassured his family that everything would be okay.

"It’ll be okay. I don’t want to go, but I have to. When I get back we’ll pick up where we left off."

United Airlines agreed to hold his application until he ret… Read full post »

 The small dark haired boy worked quietly beside his older sister as they planted corn in an abandoned sandbox near the garage on their 280 acre farm. Seven-year-old Jim, and ten-year-old Marge Bultman were not only brother and sister, they were best friends.

"I can’t wait until the… Read full post »

This week marks the 33^rd anniversary of my mother’s death. It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long since I last saw her, yet on the other hand it feels as though she’s been gone much longer. Mom was only 40 years old when she lost her battle to cancer. Fall… Read full post »

Growing up in the 1960s was the best era for TV westerns. On Saturday morning my siblings and I would get up early to watch Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. On school days getting up early was such a chore, but Saturday was a different story. We’d get out of bed… Read full post »

This morning I baked a double batch of chocolate chip cookies. Most of them are going to a friend who recently and miraculously survived a horrible automobile accident. They are his favorite cookies and like his family I’m glad he’s alive so I told him I would bring some freshly baked… Read full post »

I grew up in subdivision just a few miles north of Watseka, Illinois. The subdivision was the brainchild of a contractor who built a row of cookie cutter houses in the 1950s. We lived in the first house of the developed area that began on a small hill. Behind the row… Read full post »

 I thought it was strange when our five-year-old German shorthaired pointer, Clara, suddenly preferred sleeping downstairs instead of in our son’s room where she had claimed his bed for her very own. Even stranger was when she gave up one of her favorite activities – riding in… Read full post »

Grandmothers’ Love – Paying it Forward

My training to be a grandmother began when I was a child. I knew both of my grandmothers and three of my great-grandmothers – five women who influenced me in their own unique way.

Grandma Bultman was a little woman standing barely five foot two,… Read full post »

When I visited Whitley County, Indiana to promote my two published novels, both historic fiction, I got right to the point. I write about dead people. The Music Teacher and Creager Farm: A Sequel to the Music Teacher included a lot of Creager family history and was set in Whitley County.… Read full post »

I'm watching an old Bonanza rerun on T.V.

As the four Cartwright's ride across the Ponderosa,

I'm a little girl again, sitting on the couch with my brother.

It's Sunday night!

There's Hoss with his tongue hanging out

of his mouth trying to explain a mishap.

Little Joe's laughing with… Read full post »

The warm sun shines bright in the blue sky, announcing the onset of summer, illuminating the rural images before me. The white farmhouse stands proudly on a hill like a queen on her throne and a white board fence lines a pasture, green with tender grass.

Cattle graze happily, lazily, occasionally… Read full post »

The brown leather chair, cracked and worn, was their favorite attraction. A boy and his two sisters spinning around, swirling and squeaking, until they got caught!

Two hairdryers, big pink vinyl chairs with ashtrays built in the arms and huge metal hoods roaring loudly in the customer’s… Read full post »