Speak No Evil: Fear

What is it about fear? It shapes and molds us, makes decisions on our behalf, builds obstacles and then throws them in our path. It puts up walls and encapsulates us in a prison of our own making. Fear wields an almighty power over our lives … because we allow it. The result of fear is a life half lived. … Read More

Our Broken System

I recently wrote about some of the abysmal statistics of rape cases, where it is likely that only 5 out of every 1,000 perpetrators will go to prison (RAINN.org). Other studies put the number at 7 out of every 1,000, but it remains that less than 1% of the perpetrators will see prison time. In fact, I recently blogged about … Read More

Judging the Judge

Every 92 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted.And every 9 minutes, that victim is a child.Meanwhile, only 5 out of every 1,000 perpetrators will end up in prison. (Statistics from RAINN.org) Let’s talk a little bit about what those numbers mean … like only 0.5% of the perpertators will wind up in prison. Or to put it another way, 99.5% … Read More

The Face of Rape Culture

I am incensed and saddened by the news about Shane Piche, who pled guilty to raping a 14-year-old girl. My heart is shredded and crying on behalf of the girl. Her life has been turned upside down by this man who will not see one day of jail time. Maybe if I knew all the facts, I’d have another perspective, … Read More

In Memory of Dad

We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog post … oh … wait — I don’t blog on a regular basis, so that is wrong from the start. It just came to me as I try to wrap my head around something that is not only a sensitive issue, but something very emotional for me, because of dad. As I sit here … Read More

My Signature Stamp

Today I’m going to take a break from shouting out about The Journal of Angela Ashby … not because I’m done telling you about the book, but because I got something in the mail today and wanted to share. This may make me a bit of a dork, but I am super excited to share the stamps I received this … Read More

The Lernean Hydra

One question authors are frequently asked is, “Where do you get your ideas?” Truthfully, story ideas usually come to us in a variety of ways, whether it be from a news item, an article we read, the blinding lightning bolt where the idea simply occurs, dreams, life … anything really. No matter how I get the original idea, I usually … Read More

The Ban on Best Friends

At the beginning of January, US News ran an article written by Dr. Barbara Greenberg, PhD talking about whether schools should ban kids from having best friends. After the first thought of What idiocy is this??? I was ready to become a keyboard warrior and shoot from the hip about how ridiculous the concept of banning best friends truly is. … Read More

Beyond Normal Revisited

Four years ago today, while going through chemotherapy for Leukemia and Lymphoma, I was having a pretty rough day, so I blogged about it on my cancer site. The post was titled, Life Beyond Normal, because at that point, my normal had been stripped away, turned completely upside down, shaken, and forever changed. I had to learn what my limits … Read More

Belief

As I am working on the first book in my Homeless Myths series, The Star Warriors and the Secret of the Red Key, the topic of belief systems is present all the time. With Myths in the series name, those things are running through my head. Why do we believe the things we do. What do these kids believe? How … Read More

The Safe Place

I recently ran across an article discussing some alarming statistics which coincide directly with the increase in smart phone use. I’ll discuss some of those statistics in a future post, but wanted to discuss the first thing that popped into my mind as I read through the article. In the digital age we live in, the ability to have a … Read More

The Homeless Scout Troop

During my school years, up until high school, I belonged to the Girl Scouts. I have many memories of being a scout, particularly the camping trips. We were known as the camping troop in our area, and had several outings a year. So when I think of my time in the Girl Scouts I remember setting up tents, roasting marshmallows … Read More