Category: Homemaking

  • A few items of summer

    It’s been a while since I last posted the picture of my cat screaming, and various things have occurred both before and after that, which I am aiming to catch up with and report here, in this dusty corner of the internet. Item One:  As of this summer, I have new literary representation in the…

  • Map for a Forgotten Valley and 631

    Dear Locals (and those traveling nearby) who will be around Youngstown on February 15th.  I am giving a reading from my series of creative nonfiction vignettes called “Map for a Forgotten Valley”, along with a showing of Derek Jones’ short film “631”.  Here is a blurb of what the evening will look like.  Please click…

  • New Pics, New Blogging (maybe)

    My adopted Japanese mother recently complained that I no longer take pictures of things and post them online.  She questioned whether this was because I needed a new camera.  Maybe my old one no longer worked? And so when my birthday came, a package from Japan arrived at my house.  Inside the package was a…

  • Walking on sunshine

    School is out. I’m writing again. It’s Friday and this week, my first week of freedom of time, I’ve managed to write 3600 words. Have completed a chapter and started a new one. This is what I’m talking about. Oh, summer, how I have missed you. Hopefully by the end of August, I’ll have a…

  • Summer Stock

    It is now August, and I’m at the tail end of what has been a very busy summer.  I managed to move forward a bit with the novel, wrote two short stories, and an essay, and also took two classes toward my MFA degree and will be taking a third one beginning at the end…

  • Away and all…

    Yes, I’ve not been blogging for a while.  I’ve been in Pittsburgh for the past week, taking a very cool Pittsburgh Field Seminar.  The classes are every day, and long, but I’ve quickly gotten to know my way around the place because of all the traveling and touring we’re doing, and not just getting to…

  • YSU-Ytown Reading Series

    Just a brief announcement that I, along with my assistant Mona Lisi (yes, it’s her real name, and it’s awesome, isn’t it?), have been doing the work to start promoting awareness of a new YSU-Ytown Reading Series, a new monthly event (during the college school year) I’ve created to bridge university activities with the community…

  • Things I’ve been doing lately

    1. Copyediting the final manuscript for The Love We Share Without Knowing. 2. Getting a local writer’s group up and running. 3. Getting a local book club up and running at the Oakland Center for the Arts. (Want to join?  E-mail me!) 4. Working out again, finally! 5. Getting a story ready to submit to…

  • New additions

    Two new additions to the Outlook household, Yuki (Snow) and Kokoro (Heart–because he has a faint heart murmur the vet on duty at the shelter told me). Yuki has blue eyes and Kokoro green–otherwise I’d never be able to tell them apart.  They’ve been playing for the past five hours straight, and have finally settled…

  • Another room down and done

    Two views of the new dining room.