It’s summer in Alaska and we’ve been blessed with freakishly high temperatures, sunny skies and daylight stretching out past midnight. It’s intoxicating and giddy. It’s difficult to stay indoors. It’s so damned awesome. Except (there’s always an except, isn’t there?) I haven’t been able to do the things I love the most, namely running and… Read More High summer, and book news
I tried my hand at a 50-word story and soon learned that it isn’t easy to write a full story in exactly 50 words. The original attempt was 140 words. I sliced it down to 100, which wasn’t that difficult. Cutting it to 50, however, was where I really struggled. My aim was to capture a… Read More New work up at 50-word stories
First things first: My flash creative nonfiction piece A Fancy Department Store in Cleveland, 1970 is up at the The Disappointed Housewife. Here’s the beginning: A Fancy Department Store in Cleveland, 1970 We knew we didn’t belong, my sisters and me. We knew by the way the saleslady tightened her mouth, the edges of her lipstick… Read More Essay up at The Disappointed Housewife, and a busy week
Good news: My prose poem, Running mountains at fifty, is up at Gyroscope Review. I wrote this a few years ago, after running up Powerline Pass with a friend in the middle of the winter. It was a magical night, the air so cold it hurt to breathe, but in a good sort of way. Our… Read More New work up at Gyroscope Review, and Best of the Net nomination
It’s been quite a summer. I haven’t been blogging much because, you know, summer. Alaska. Long daylight. Too many hours to play, But I have been writing. Not as much as I could or should have been, but I did manage to write something almost every day, even if it was only a few scribbles… Read More Two publications, and where did summer go?
The damnest thing happened last month. Seriously (our dog) and I were running trails with a friend and her husky, when we saw a lone black bear. And Seriously walked over and kissed it. WTF, eh? Here’s how it happened. We were on the Campbell Tract trails and stopped to water the dogs by the… Read More My dog kissed a bear (Seriously) and, yes, yes, it’s summer in Alaska
I’ve been feeling a bit down. There is so much political bullshit screaming at me from all angles, so much lying and maneuvering and power grabbing, and then all of the #metoo revelations and then the backlash to the #metoo revelations, and then our elected officials acting so badly and so poorly, and whatever has… Read More New work up at Wild Violet, and a chicken with a sprained leg
I keep singing that song by Simon & Garfunkel (and later, redone by the Bangles, the version I prefer), A Hazy Shade of Winter. Most likely this is because we got a couple of more inches of snow this morning. And yes, it is beautiful, everything coated and soft. When evening comes (and it comes at… Read More Hazy shades of winter
Last week my son flew up from Stanford to visit. What a gift, having a grown child. It’s so strange the way roles begin to reverse, how you have to give up your hold as parent and begin to see your child as a separate individual, with separate paths and goals and beliefs, and how… Read More Visit with my son
Until last week, I had forgotten about the creative nonfiction manuscript I had submitted to the Honeysuckle Press Chapbook Contest back in December. I submit a lot, and when I don’t hear back I naturally assume that it either wasn’t a good fit or they thought it sucked. Then I received this email: I’m emailing… Read More Semifinalist status, and a little bit of Alaska
Cinthia Ritchie 