Time for a little winter respite. In the meantime, here's a little otter happiness from our trip to pick up our son from his university last week. May you all roll into the new year with such grace. https://videopress.com/v/U26vsLc6?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true And maybe a little cocoa if you're feeling chilly..... Happy New Year!!!
Hello everyone! Taking a break this week to enjoy my son being home from college. Which means I'm back to making lots of food, LOL. Love it! Love him to pieces! Here are a couple of photos I took of The Last Bookstore in Los Angeles. Part bookstore. Part art gallery. Lots of cozy nooks. … Continue reading Family Downtime & The Last Bookstore
Taking a break for July. Will return refreshed and full of vim, vigor, and vitality in mid-August! Ready to talk about all kinds of new releases and maybe a few from the past as well. While you're waiting, here are a handful of random photos from a few of my favorite places. My apologies for … Continue reading Summer Hiatus Photos
Taking a little time off from posting until the fall. Thought I'd leave you all with a link to one of the most extraordinary places on earth, the Okavango Delta in Botswana. We camped on top of a truck throughout Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia in 1997 for a couple of months. One of … Continue reading Okavango Delta – Respite
Last night, "O" ring #20 failed. Snapped without a sound. Unlike those infamous "O" rings from the Challenger disaster, when this one failed, no one died. Well, maybe no one died. Or maybe someone did. In 1988, I'd been dumped by a man I'd lived with for five years. In response, my mother … Continue reading On “O” Rings, Dumping, and Speeding
Our family is heading to Boston this weekend on our first leg up to the island in Maine, where we'll celebrate my father-in-law's life and legacy. Apropos of Peter's sense of humor, various family members have suggested that we give Peter a Viking funeral using his 18-ft. Interlake sailboat that we capsized last year in … Continue reading Home(s)ward Bound
A couple of weeks ago, I told you about my husband's cousins who are hiking the Appalachian Trail with their two children. The children were reciting from Moby Dick and Frost's "The Road Less Traveled." NPR caught wind of the family's adventure and interviewed them on the trail. While there was no recitation during the … Continue reading Appalachian Trail Hikers on NPR
I'd like to introduce you to the Kallin family, my husband's cousins who live in rural Maine. The father (trail name: All In) is an environmental lawyer and their mother (trail name: Mama Bear) is a biologist and farmer extraordinaire. They pulled their two kids, ages 7 (trail name: Cartwheel) and 9 (trail name: Robin … Continue reading Moby Dick, Robert Frost, and Einstein on the Appalachian Trail
"Halloooooooo!" says Tigger! I've brought in a Caterpillar D-10 to move my email around after hiring a Caterpillar 797F off-road truck to haul it to my office. Each wheel, attached to the axle with 47 nuts torqued to 2300 lb.-ft. each, costs $250,000. Why, oh why, did I ever go on holiday?! Surely not just … Continue reading Not Just for Poets
Well, folks, I have returned from Squaw Valley, but I haven't come down from my cloud--the one with a "9" painted on it. My stellar morning workshop group sessions were led by Peter Steinberg (agent), Lynn Freed (novelist), Ann Close (Senior Editor at Knopf), Amanda Ward (novelist), Louis B. Jones (novelist), and Gail Tsukiyama (novelist), … Continue reading Nuggets from Squaw Valley Writers Workshop
Jilanne Hoffmann 