September 21-22, 2019: Traveling After my flight from California landed in Salt Lake City, I had a 2-1/2 hour layover. Then I boarded the red-eye to Heathrow. We arrived about 11:00 a.m. on the 22nd. Jet-lagged and bleary-eyed, I checked into my Bloomsbury hotel—too drained for more than a foggy scout for supper. I had … Continue reading Footsteps Through Time: A London Diary of Discovery and Dust
Art
Finding Inspiration in Simplicity
When I was in college, my course load was just shy of full time, but my schedule was intense. I had a part-time job, studied martial arts, played the guitar, and was dating. After a couple of semesters of earning one B for every A, I realized something had to give. As much as I … Continue reading Finding Inspiration in Simplicity
Life and Legacy
What is a legacy? If you look to the dictionary for an answer, the first definition that pops up is money or property left to someone in a will. The second definition is somewhat abstract, but it is the more interesting one. A legacy is something we inherit from a predecessor. In this second scenario, … Continue reading Life and Legacy
The Housewarming Gift
My house had only been on the market for a few days, when my realtor called and told me we had received multiple offers. A couple of them were over the asking price, and he made a recommendation that I accept one in particular. Before we had listed the property, I had done a thorough … Continue reading The Housewarming Gift
The Unforgotten
After I finished writing the manuscript for my first novel, A Moon Garden, I found myself in the unaccustomed state of having free time. One morning, I sat down at the computer and did a web search, to see if I could find a portrait of an aristocratic British soldier from the 1780’s, who looked … Continue reading The Unforgotten
The Mandala
The temperature was forecast to rise to 104℉. I can tolerate heat better than my dog, but I have my limits too. We set out for our walk earlier than usual, while the sun was low on the horizon, and a Delta breeze was still having its cooling effect in the valley. A patch of … Continue reading The Mandala
Beauty in the Blunder
If I have set down roots, it was less from intention than from the combined forces of time, circumstance, and inertia. The spirit of a vagabond still resides within me. But somehow, the years have passed, and I find myself living in a house with a lush, mature garden that I alone designed, planted, and … Continue reading Beauty in the Blunder
Wishlists and Woke Roulette
Big Hollywood and Big Beer have taken heat for pushing wokeness over common sense, but the literary world seems to be flying happily under the radar. Since most publishing houses don’t accept submissions directly from fiction writers, it is necessary to go through an agent. For many good reasons, a screening process is required. During … Continue reading Wishlists and Woke Roulette
Lord Rockingham’s Passion
Liz Truss made history by resigning as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on October 19, 2022, after only 44 days in office. It was 240 years ago, on July 1, 1782, when the second term of Prime Minister Charles Watson-Wentworth, Marquess of Rockingham, ended after only 96 days. The flu epidemic of 1782 took the … Continue reading Lord Rockingham’s Passion
Roxane Gilbert 