Sometimes we're compelled to do the one thing we swore we would never do. When I accepted the position of Website Chair on the board of the Network of Entrepreneurial Women, a non-profit organization in Bend, I was assured that the website had recently been...
I was supposed to adopt my brother Jeff's English Cocker as soon as the two arrived from France. I knew there had been problems, which is why Bodhi had been forced to leave the Paris apartment my brother and sister-in-law share. But having housed Bodhi for a summer...
I'm not much for New Year's resolutions, but this year is the exception. I've resolved to bring more fun and more joy into my life. In thinking about this 2014 kickoff blog post, I realized that incorporating those two elements into one's writing is really the key to...
Determined not to start the new year with an overflowing Inbox, I forced myself to dive in and deal with every single scrap of paper that had accumulated over the months. I know what you're thinking. Yes, I actually do have a painfully tangible Inbox as well as a...
Are you having trouble sitting down to write this holiday season? I know I am. After months of pushing so hard I wondered if I'd ever have a social life again, I'm spent. So this year I'm giving myself the best gift I can think of. I'm giving myself a reprieve. If...
As I mentioned in a prior post about writing effective web content, this fall I attended Bend Webcam 2013 where I heard , Dr. Susan Weinschenk, author of How to Get People to Do Stuff, speak. She offered so many interesting insights that I couldn't include them all...
Ziggy, my fourth pup, belonged to friends of mine who had adopted him from the Humane Society. The Australian Sheppard-Border Collie mix was as sweet as he was beautiful. It quickly became apparent, however, that he was also a scared dog with an ugly past. Raised...
Fifty years ago today, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I still remember the day, even though I was only 6. We were living in Rio de Janiero. My parents held each other and cried as they listened to the news. I didn't understand much of what was actually...
Wendy Coblentz knew she wanted to be a writer. So she tried really hard to become just that. It seemed like the harder she tried, the further she strayed from writing that actually sounded like her and felt genuine. Wendy recently posted a seven-part blog series about...
I met Sophie, a Black Australian Shepherd-Golden Retriever mix who looks just like a Flat-Coated Retriever, when she was a year old. She raced out to the rocks at the southeast border of my backyard, curled her lip Elvis style and wagged the lower half of her body so...
