Barbara Samuel's Blog: A Writer Afoot, page 14

A photo of a yellow flower in my kitchen

I promise I am not abandoning you to photo posts forever more. But this shot was just sitting there waiting when Jack and I came in for a walk the other day, so I thought you would enjoy it, too.

Also, I have had no time to write a proper blog. If you missed [...:]

A Sunday with the aspens

CR and I went for a long Sunday drive in the mountains today.  We took a picnic of sushi and pears and Izze, which a Stellar's jay tried to enjoy with us.  We looped up to Florissant, then into Cripple Creek.   Maybe not exactly color as in the North East, but we have other [...:]

Lasagna so great you'll never even notice that it's really good for you

I was bragging about this recipe online, and someone asked for the recipe, so here it is. It is strongly-flavored, highly nutritious and delicious vegetarian lasagna.  Adapted in part from a recipe I found in Shape magazine a couple of years ago.  The sauce recipe is one I've been working with a long time; [...:]

Whispers of autumn

photo by ha Ree

This morning, I had to put on tennis shoes and pull on my fleece before I walked the dog.  The sky is clear and the sun is like lemon juice dripping between shadows, but there's a bite to the breeze.  On the western horizon, Pikes Peak is drawn in [...:]

I am seven years old….

Working with timed writings and writing prompts

I'm currently teaching voice classes. One of the techniques I love is to use prompts and timed writings to help writers get past the internal critic and find a natural cadence and tone.  The prompt for this one is to write for ten minutes on a house [...:]

A dahlia for Friday

In HOW TO BAKE A PERFECT LIFE, there is a young girl who falls madly in love with dahlias.   Somehow, I am in love with dahlias, too, and this one is growing in my front yard. It makes me want to go [...:]

Book review: MAYBE THIS TIME, by Jennifer Crusie

MAYBE THIS TIME Jennifer Crusie St Martin's Press ISBN 978-0-312-30378-5

It has been six years since Jennifer Crusie has written a solo novel.  Friends, it was worth the wait.  Maybe This Time, published by St. Martin's Press on August 30th, is her best book yet.  It's also another step in her long, interesting career, [...:]

Elsewhere, a blog on walking

No one here will be surprised at this post that I wrote for  Writer Unboxed.   I knew some of you would enjoy reading it, but keep forgetting to post a link here.

The Writer's Toolbox: Walking

One of the number one requirements of a commercial fiction career is that you must reliably produce [...:]

A Bed of Spices now available in ebook format

A BED OF SPICES is a wildly romantic tale of forbidden love set in the turbulent middle ages. Solomon and Rica meet by chance at the herbalist's cottage and fall deeply in love despite the divisions of religion, class, and expectations — but how can they possibly find a happy ending with so [...:]

The damp, dewy beginning

I'm at the beginning of a new book.   This is probably my favorite part of writing—every possibility exists.  There is a freshness to the material, a scent of dew and dawn filling my work hours.  There is always the chance that this time I will have matured enough, learned enough, that I will be [...:]