Brenda Bellinger is an award-winning writer and author of Taking Root, an urban coming-of-age novel. As a former courtroom clerk and high school secretary, she didn't have to look far to find fertile soil for her imagination.
Brenda has been honored with first place awards for non-fiction and flash fiction at the Mendocino Coast and Central Coast Writers Conferences, respectively. Her work has appeared in Small Farmer's Journal, Mom Egg Review, Persimmon Tree, THEMA, the California Writers Club Literary Review, and in various anthologies.
Fueled by good coffee, Brenda writes from an empty nest on an old chicken farm in Northern California.
It may sound silly or self-indulgent, but coffee has become my anchor. It centers me, any time of day. What used to be a rushed part of my morning routine is now a moment of calm in a sea of chaos. Sanctuary in a cup. And it’s an essential element when contemplating a blank screen! […]
The topic of book censorship got me thinking about my own parenting style when my husband and I were raising four boys. When they were little, we read to them often and encouraged independent reading as they grew. In fact, our youngest always had a book along with him anytime we went anywhere in the […]
Our neighborhood elementary school has something called the “buddy bench.” If a student is missing their playmate who might be absent, or they just feel as though they need a friend, they can have a seat there and another student will soon join them or invite them to play. It’s part of the culture fostered […]
In these edgy, uncertain times, there’s something to be said for finding and following a recipe and the temporary distraction that it provides—measuring, stirring, baking or cooking—and the satisfaction derived from the results. Remember all the bread baking and comfort food making that was going on in the early stages of COVID-19 isolation? Recently, I […]
Twenty years ago, while he was still living at home, one of my sons decided to buy a 25-year-old jet boat “as is.” The only water it’s seen since it’s been here is rainwater. One of the grandkids caught some tadpoles in it and brought them to school for show and tell. When my son […]
Well, I’m back in the saddle, except for the occasional dry cough. Not being able to focus while reading was one of the most challenging aspects of COVID for me. I’m usually a slow reader anyway but this was ridiculous. I found myself reading the same page over and over. No reflection on the writing, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
It’s hard not to be overwhelmed with despair at all the crises looming large near and far, from racially motivated killings and random violence in the U.S. to the ongoing atrocities in Ukraine and triple digit temperatures in India. Not to mention the millions of lives lost to COVID and hundreds of thousands of others […]
Brenda Bellinger