K.P. Gresham's Blog, page 2
June 10, 2025
June 3, 2025
COOKIES, MYSTERIES AND MORE COOKIES – AND NOW PANETTONE
by
Francine Paino, a.k.a. F. Della Notte
Cookies. Who doesn’t love them? Far and away, the American favorite is the Chocolate Chip cookie, a creation of the Wakefields of Massachusetts. (More on that later). Over 53% of American adults prefer Chocolate Chip to other varieties. But the most popular cookie worldwide, sold in over 100 countries… drum roll, please, is Oreo!
The popularity of…
April 28, 2025
JUST LOOK AROUND!
by HELEN CURRIE FOSTER
Not enough rain fell this year to allow the brilliant cerulean fields of Hill Country bluebonnets we usually expect, but the hardy lupines are busy making seedpods. “Maybe next year,” they say. Now instead we have the bright yellow coreopsis lanceolata, nodding their heads with any breeze,
the wine-cups with their indescribable color—a member of the mallow family, not…
April 22, 2025
CATHOLICISM, THE MUNDANE AND THE PROFOUND.
By Francine Paino, a.k.a. F. Della Notte
Monday, April 21, 2025. “Jorge Bergoglio,” the Camerlengo tapped Jorge’s forehead gently with a silver hammer and repeated his birth name three times. The Camerlengo received no response and declared Pope Francis, the 266th successor to Peter, dead.
Of course, in today’s world, medical devices inform the state of man’s being, but the Catholic Church…
April 18, 2025
Review: Ella Minnow Pea
by Kathy Waller
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
Last week I re-posted about the difficulty I experienced trying to compose a blog post when my keyboard malfunctioned: I pressed a key, no letter appeared; I pressed another, no letter appeared. And so 0n. Communication broke down. But on a very minor scale. After an hour of teeth-grinding, I saw the humor. No harm…
April 10, 2025
My Keys Won’ Work
by Kathy Waller
It’s been quite a while since I posted,* and I should wait until my turn rolls around again. But today a fellow Wretch shared something that had happened to her, and that reminded me of something that happened to me, and this is an Open week on ISW, so I decided to share what my friend’s remark reminded me of. Right now. Before I forget.
This is a repost of a repost of a post…
March 27, 2025
Words, words, words …
By Dixie Evatt
Words, words, words …
~ Shakespeare
Before we had powerful computers in our pockets or on our laps, we had reference books… shelves and shelves of them.
One of my favorite possessions is a vintage Webster’s dictionary, published 1956 – when I was 10 years old. All 11-plus pounds of the five-inch-thick book teeter on a top shelf in my office. I can no longer safely lift…
March 18, 2025
EQUINOX!
by Helen Currie Foster
March 14, 2025
“An excess of animal spirits”–springtime! Really? Molly Ivins was right as usual when she wrote, “Texas–land of wretched excess!” We’ve had ridiculous lows, unseen for decades. Early daffodils and hyacinths came, shivered, and shriveled in the unholy cold winds roaring across the plains. But we’ve also had the earliest 90 degrees in decades! Wretched excess…
March 11, 2025
WRITING CHARACTERS’ EMOTIONS
BY
Francine Paino, a.k.a. F. Della Notte
People don’t stand or sit like stone statues, unless there’s a reason. They move, breathe, and respond to situations with emotions, internally and externally, and so they should in stories. Thus, the author must find words to bring the reader into the character’s heart and mind. Writers spend hours thinking about what their characters are feeling. How do…
February 10, 2025
Rain, rain go away…
By: Dixie Evatt
It might just be the Texas temperatures that have been rocking from the 20s to the 80s since the first of the new year. Or maybe it’s the ominous news reports about melting ice caps or the drought conditions paired with hurricane-force winds that helped fuel the Los Angeles wildfires. Whatever the case, I find my mind traveling again and again to thoughts of weather and the…
