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
Dust to Dust
This post happens to fall on what would have been my mother’s 86th birthday if she were still with us. She passed away thirteen years ago, yet I often feel her presence. Recently, I was dusting a small antique genie lamp that belonged to her mother, my grandmother. Made of white china, its glaze bears […]
After the Storm
You gotta be careful what you wish for! A little over a week ago, an “atmospheric river” dropped six to eight inches of rain in our area in a 24-hour period. There were reports of localized flooding and downed trees. We watched as water flowed along drainage ditches long overgrown and small seasonal ponds we […]
Tripidation
Tripidation – a state of worried anticipation about air travel during COVID – choosing which mask to wear, maintaining a safe distance from other passengers, avoiding high touch surface areas, etc. We planned our long-awaited trip to visit grandchildren in Tennessee for mid-October hoping to avoid the crush of summer and holiday travel. Wanting to […]
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 