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
Happy New Year!
I don’t know about you but I’m still waiting for this to feel like a fresh start instead of more of the same. My family has a memorial event to plan and a wedding coming up this summer. Will we be able to travel and safely gather together? I’m thinking of other families who lost […]
Still Here
It’s Sunday morning, the day after Christmas. I’m staring at a blank screen, waiting for the infusion of strong coffee to kick in and marshal my thoughts for a post, due in two days. (A self-imposed deadline, I know, but I respect it.) I should be writing an obituary for my father who passed away […]
‘Tis the Season
Last year our Christmas was small. No tree, no large family gatherings, a few presents for the grandchildren ordered mostly online and dinner with my elderly father. This year, the holidays seemed more hopeful. Fully vaxxed and boostered, I got an early start on my Christmas shopping, visited local stores, and mailed gifts that needed […]
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 