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Gone Girl, Ellen Style

Hip rehab, yes. But obsession in writing a new novel too. That’s why I’ve been so absent—the combination of these two life facts have been deadly to blogging, for which I apologize. BTW, I’ve missed being here. 🙂 Here’s my latest: * The University of North Carolina was eliminated from the NCAA men’s...

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I Saw God

Graffiti. A bare tree. My dog’s pink tongue. This is where I’m seeing God these days. My Lenten discipline this year for the forty days preceding Easter is to see God every day and share my sightings on my Facebook author page. I’ve had many, varied Lenten disciplines over the years. During my childhood, mostly no sweets....

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The Gift of Doll God

When I showed up at the psychiatrist seeking help for my night terrors, the first question the doctor asked was whether as a child I had played with dolls. I was incensed—a thirty-something lawyer in charge of my own life, and he was reverting to some Freudian hooey? Better he should have asked why as a child I insisted on climbing higher...

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Walking Toward the River

Every morning and every afternoon I walk toward the river. The river flows past the oversized window at the end of our hallway. Sometimes when I walk, a behometh ship passes, rusty hull slicing the air. At other times it’s the train passing, the cars laden with graffiti. On the rarest of occasions, the train runs in front of a ship and...

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Literary Gift to Those Once Known as Homeless

No one owes you anything in this world. Everything anyone does for you is a gift. Some gifts—the gift of love or forgiveness or a trust fund enabling you to graduate law school and make your way in this world for a while—are pretty damn big gifts. Others may seem small, but those gifts are the ones that often bring tears to my eyes. Chapter...

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The Body in Conversation

My body is aghast at what I’ve done to it. Open-mouthed, slack-jawed, incredulous. Like the time in the 11th grade when I was playing powder puff (Ha!) football for the Keyettes. I was standing there minding my own business when wham! I was knocked senseless onto the ground. I struggled upright to see the grinning face of a girl on the...

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Creative Healing

I am working on a new novel. A mystery with a 62-year-old protagonist who was formerly homeless. A body is found in a Jeep in the Wolf River Harbor. My man Coot is on the case. This is why I haven’t been posting lately. When I am drafting—not revising, but writing new work—everything else pretty much comes to a stand still. I am only...

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Arrived!

The new family   The Baby Tall Joseph, his journey finished The flock (and Jonah’s whale) The angels, all of them The joyous, protective frog The proud mother, author of the Magnificat: “God has scattered the proud in their conceit casting down the mighty from their thronesand lifting up the lowly”                        ...

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The Last Day of Advent

She began the journey on her own (don’t we all?) Mary on the concrete bench and knelt in awe of what was to come kneeling in expectancy before forging on the responsibility of being chosen only to have Joseph joyfully join her journey the mantle of companionship when they were promptly overtaken by the world Mary and Tall Joseph and...

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