Quimmer. Stranded. Separated from his pack. About as visible as a grain of sand stuck to the smooth side of a seashell, the dog stands on a slab of sea ice floating atop the placid waves of Scorsbysund. Four days ago, everyone in the east Greenlandic village of Ittoqqortoormiit woke up to a different world than what they had been used to at this time of year.
Mother Nature’s April Fool’s Day prank? Hmmm… Continue reading
“I’d rather be here, with you, than anywhere else in the world.”
When the man in the mountain spoke, it wasn’t with words. A wave of warm air rippled across his furrowed forehead, crept over his craggy face, and burst from the mouth of a cave carved above his clean-shaven chin. The breath of wind beckoned. “Come,” it coaxed. “Let us walk together in another’s footsteps.”
The distance from the edge of the mesa to the bottom of the rock face might just as well have been the height of the Empire State Building. I thought we’d be maneuvering the 200 foot drop along some wide, gradually sloping, hand-railed staircase, not snaking down a perpendicular footpath where I’d have to stab my fingers into hand cracks to stay balanced and, in particularly narrow spaces, pry my dusty size six sneakers from smooth grooves worn into the pitted volcanic tuff by legions of industrious feet for nearly six hundred years.
Clouds of steam rise from bubbling pits on the pocked landscape.
It smells like Beelzebub is venting a batch of burned hard-boiled eggs from his sizzling subterranean scullery far below our hiking booted feet. Continue reading
One paper heart
trimmed in frilly,
white lace,
One arrow,
one promise
of a sweet,
warm embrace.
Once it’s notched, drawn, and trained on a specific bullseye,
Cupid first blows a kiss, and then lets it fly ~ Continue reading
How long does it take for a potato to freeze? I wondered as the rotors whirred to life. It was April in the Arctic. We were on the last leg of our journey to spending eight days in a remote village in East Greenland. Four days in a guest house and four in the wild on dogsled.
How long would it take an eyeball to freeze in its socket? was really the burning question that churned in my stomach before the helicopter taxied, lifted, and lunged toward our destination with the first half of our group on board. Continue reading
‘Tis three nights before Christmas,
the day after Hanukkah,
eight from St. Lucia,
and five ’til Kwanzaa.
‘Tis two months since Diwali,
India’s festival of light,
as Sun settles into
our world’s longest night.
A breeze hugs the mountain, nudging daytime to eve,
while an unkindness of ravens and a hawk take their leave.
Observing them soar to where they’d come from
I notice how still it’s suddenly become. Continue reading
A Blast from Thanksgiving Days of the past…
Same place, different holiday, but you get the idea. ca. 1972
Once upon a Thanksgiving Day, the only room large enough to host the Lambo family was in my grand-parents basement that had been fitted with a second kitchen just for such occasions. The oblong, wood-panelled room sported a bar at the far end fashioned from the same panelling that covered the cinder-block walls. Its red speckled linoleum top ran just about the width of the room under a casement window that looked onto the shrub lined cement driveway.
A few cousins, my younger sister, and I often played behind the bar, rummaging through an assorted collection of treasures—pirate ship embossed coasters, gold-rimmed wine glasses, wrinkled sepia photos of the old country, and glass cocktail stirrers topped with fruits, animals, and, close your eyes now, slim naked women.
View original post 872 more words
Five writers take on their inner demons and the ever-changing world of publishing.
discovering the story it tells
This picayune world, my own private Lilliput.
Autumn memories of longing
Read ~ Review ~ Share
Adventures in Science + Ice + Art
“Books to the ceiling, Books to the sky, My pile of books is a mile high. How I love them! How I need them! I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.” - Arnold Lobel
Just exploring what it is to be human.
VIVIAN KIRKFIELD - WRITER FOR CHILDREN
Decades of her words.
A community of readers
Where the impossible becomes possible
Ramblings
open a book, open your mind
Surviving and Thriving in Northeast Greenland
A word after a word after a word is power. --Margaret Atwood
Children's Author
a frank conversation about writing, publishing and being human.
Children's Picture Books, Fun, Long Island
Teresa Robeson's 365-Day project
Sharing Information About Writing and Illustrating for Children
Writing practice
Author, Blogger, Social Media Jedi
#bookgivingday 14th February 2018
Seeds of peace planted within yourself sprout everywhere
Reviews of Children's Board Books, Picture Books, Activity Books, and Graphic Novels
The World's Greatest Blog. Not. Then again, anything is possible.
'Cause sometimes you just have to put it out there...
Where You Live Happily Ever Laughter!
writing, publishing & literary consultanting. . .
A site devoted to the Young Adult sci-fi/fantasy novel The Eye-Dancers
Flash Fiction, Book Reviews, Devotionals and other things.
Mina Witteman - author | editor | translator | teacher creative writing
Blog & website of children's book author Tara Lazar
From Deal to Debut: the Path to Publication
