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.
Have you ever had one of those moments when what you needed most (or didn’t know you needed) seemed to suddenly appear, out of nowhere? My husband and I were taking a walk this past Sunday afternoon in a neighborhood a couple of blocks from downtown when I noticed what appeared to be a wooden […]
“Morgues are full.” Ukraine struggles to bury the dead. So the headline reads on my news feed this morning. Wasn’t it just yesterday that some of our own morgues in areas hardest hit by the pandemic were bringing in refrigeration trailers to cope with the overflow of bodies? So many of those deaths, like these, […]
Toward the end of his life, my father, who used to enjoy painting, would often say he couldn’t “get in the mood” or “just lost interest.” His easel stood waiting, a pencil-sketched canvas in place and a table of brushes and paints nearby. Sometimes, writing can feel that way, as though you’re engaged in a […]
Walking to a favorite local café after dropping my car off for service, I passed one of those little free libraries. I chose a copy of This Side of Brightness by Colum McCann, an author whose work I hadn’t previously read. Settling in with my breakfast burrito and cup of coffee, I was unprepared to […]
When the last person living in the family home dies, there is the practical matter of what to do with all of the furnishings and other belongings. If their surviving children and grandchildren already have complete households and Goodwill isn’t accepting furniture donations due to the pandemic, where does it all go? Sure, Craigslist might […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
With the exception of this past year (due to the pandemic), fellow members of one of my monthly writing groups gather for an annual weekend retreat at a rented home on the coast. Our group of eight women has been doing this for several years, most often over Super Bowl weekends. Watching football is not […]
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 […]
Brenda Bellinger