• Personal

    Back to Writing

    I spent the month of November writing pretty much constantly, and yet I completely dropped the ball on updating this blog. November was National Novel Writing Month, a challenge to complete 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. I made my goal and wrote 51,000 words of my novel in November, but it was tough. I do not typically have time to just sit down and write, so almost all of that writing happened in 10 minute spurts when I had the chance to pick up my phone. That meant that it felt like I was writing all day, every day, in between all my other daily responsibilities and…

  • Places

    Ammonoosuc River – Sunday Snapshots

    NaNoWriMo is in full swing and I have been focusing my writing on my novel this past week. The novel writing is going great, but I haven’t made much time for keeping up with my blog posts. I am dialing back my blog posts for the month of November, but I still plan to check in a few times a week. I will resume the more active blog postings in December. It has been raining a lot here lately and the river is raging. Here are some picture of the river that I took from the covered bridge on Saturday.

  • Fiction,  Prose

    The Patron

    The tired, old bookseller heard the bell over the door ring and looked up from his coffee to see who had entered his shop. He studied the young woman and wondered whether she was just a casual tourist or one of the few who felt the pull from one of the Books hidden on the back shelf. The old man had grown tired of running the shop and now was only open a few hours a week, he often thought about closing it, but he felt a calling to keep it open for those special few who needed it. The woman did not seem to know what she was looking…

  • Places

    Halloween in Littleton NH and the Gathering of the Jack o Lanterns

    It isn’t even Halloween yet, but there has already been plenty of Halloween celebration in the town of Littleton. The search for Golden Pumpkins was a great lead up to the Halloween season, and the big town celebrations happened this past Saturday with the Gathering of the Jack o Lanterns. Saturday was packed with activities. We started off the day at Halloween Fest at the High School where there were games, bounce houses, face painting, pumpkin carving and lots of treats for the kids. The high school was packed and lots of kids were clearly having a great time. After checking out the activity at the high school, Cal hurried…

  • Places

    Gathering of the Jack o Lanterns – Littleton NH

    I have been looking forward to the Gathering of the Jack o Lanterns in Littleton ever since I first heard about it (way before we even moved here). Unfortunately the weather was not cooperative this year. The event went on regardless of weather, but while we were celebrating we were hit with the remains of a Nor’easter, freezing rain, and hail. The wind blew out some of the candles and they weren’t able to get out to all the rocks in the middle of the river to place Jack o Lanterns, but it was still a great event. This blog is participating in the Sundays in my City link up.…

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  • Projects

    Creating an Elven Warrior Costume

    When Ryan first told me he wanted to be an Elven Warrior for Halloween, I was intimidated and had no idea where to start. I made him look through Pinterest with me until he could give me an idea of what he was picturing in his mind. As it turned out, he wanted something that looked similar to Link in Legends of Zelda. I still wasn’t sure where to start, but we agreed that I would sew him a tunic and hat. We ordered him elf ears for a few dollars from Amazon. For the tunic and hat, I took him to a local sewing shop to pick out fabric.…

  • Fiction,  Prose

    The Bookseller

    She walked down the narrow, cobblestone alley; she had never noticed the old bookstore there before. The sign outside said simply: “BOOKS Wednesdays 10-2”. She walked in to discover shelves and shelves of unfamiliar dust-covered books, not the walls of classics or contemporary books she expected to find in a bookstore. These were books about magic, fairies, spirits, and spells. The bookseller glared at her as she reached to dust off a book hidden in the corner. This was the book that would change everything. This was a six sentence story that had to include the prompt word CLASSICS. To see more six sentence stories responding to this prompt go…

  • Fiction,  Prose

    Know the Novel: Introducing Misfit Magic

    I feel like I have really found my groove with writing again recently. For the past few years, any time I sat down to write, I would feel guilty and like my time was better spent doing something else.  The act of pulling out my computer became a task associated with finishing my thesis and high levels of stress. I have always loved writing, but for a while I found every excuse available to avoid writing.  I am so happy to be back writing again.  I rediscovered the joy in writing.  There are still a million reasons for me to put off writing, but I feel  more committed to writing…

  • Places

    The Search for the Golden Pumpkin

    The vivid colors have dropped from the trees. The temperatures have dropped along with the leaves. It is cold enough that fewer kids are running around, but not cold enough for frolicking in snow. Littleton may have found a perfect solution for getting kids running around outside – a good old-fashioned treasure hunt! One by one, the Littleton Police Department has been hiding golden pumpkins around town. Each pumpkin has a golden ticket attached with a prize worth up to $250. Each afternoon they release a clue, and kids all around town scramble to try to find the golden pumpkin. It has been a really fun way to explore around…

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  • Places

    October Snow – Sunday Snapshots

    My favorite pictures from this week are from Thursday morning, when we woke up to snow outside. The snow was a little bit of a shock since we weren’t quite ready, but both kids woke up so excited to see all the fresh fallen snow. There is something that just feels magical about a fresh snowfall. We are not quite at the time of year where the snow sticks around for the season yet, so all the snow was gone by the next day. It was a great reminder for me that I need to get my act together and clean and organize winter gear, figure out what fits and…

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