Taking Root
Seventeen-year-old Delaney Moran is trying to make it on her own but panic attacks threaten to undermine her independence. Luella, a determined social worker, and Murray, the owner of a music store, want to help her but in doing so, they uncover a secret from her past.
My Writing Blog
Latest Posts
Foggy Brain, Worried Heart
Trying to compose a blog post through the mental haze of COVID is a bit of a challenge but I’ll give it a go. We returned last week from attending our son’s wedding out of state. It was a beautiful outdoor ceremony, and it was wonderful to be able to spend time with family and […]
Paying the Price
During our first trip to Ireland in 2005, someone on the plane had a medical crisis that necessitated an emergency landing. We were over Canada when the pilot announced he needed to jettison fuel from the wings to quickly bring the plane down in Winnipeg. After we landed and the passenger was evacuated, everyone had […]
What Can I Say?
An uninspiring title for a blog post, but this is the question that has been plaguing me since the horrendous massacre in Texas. I’m at a loss for words. What can someone say or do to comfort the broken hearts of those parents or erase the trauma the surviving students and staff members have suffered. […]
Other Writings
Thoughts on Fishing
My junior high school English teacher asked each of her students to find a poem and bring it to class. Flipping through the pages of my parents’ Viking Book of Poetry, I settled on “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop. In exquisite detail, she portrays an ancient, grandfatherly fish that could fight no more. Old hooks and pieces of line were embedded in his jaw but what I remember most was the sadness and surrender she described in his eyes as she held him half out of the water alongside the boat, before letting him go. Her poem resonated with me in an almost visceral way because I’d often gone fishing alone or with my father.
Brenda Bellinger 