Frugal Poet's Guide to Life

I occasionally try different writers' groups in Chicago. One balmy Saturday in November, I attended the Illinois Woman's Press Assoc...

When we think of Thanksgivings of the past, our memories can often blur into visual "bytes" of rising before sun-up, basting turke...

One of the best times to start a journal is during a special trip or vacation. And when teamed with photos and drawings, the same journal e...

A friend, Kim, who's a wine merchant, laid a windfall of bottles on me before leaving for Italy on a business trip. She's destined t...

Behind the front-row-center Main Street scene in Galena, Illinois, lie some hidden treasures worth unveiling. Linmar Gardens high on the hil...

Before Park Ridge, Illinois, was famous as Hillary Clinton's home town, it was famous for the Deep End Club, one of the few venues that ...

This poem, inspired by Wallace Stevens' "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" traces 12 moon months according to the names given...

Finally getting out news about the 2009 Printers Ball in Chicago a week late, but wanted to include a fun photograph of Audrey Niffenegger, ...

What pleased me most about visiting the Galos Salt Caves spa and health experience on Chicago's northwest side was its cleanliness. Ton...

Look it up now in the 2009 update ofMerriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Eleventh Edition. Hardworking word-lovers everywhere can n...

My husband Carlos and I were fortunate enough to attend Naropa University's ceremony honoring Allen Ginsberg, poet, activist and co-fou...

I suppose this post is more about photos than text. And more about lasting poets than passing fancies. During the third week of Naropa Unive...

Back home in Chicago after spending a jam-packed week with my husband Carlos at the Naropa University Summer Writing Program /Jack Kerouac S...

I have a day job, but I don't necessarily want to dialogue with it. I may argue with it a good portion of the eight hours I punch in, bu...

Dur ing a recent visit to Michigan, which is known for its fruit orchards, I came across a short list of dates when various fruits are ripe ...

I just heard that a writers' colony I've written about previously on this blog, The Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Spring...

Visited somewhere this weekend I've never been before -- Saugatuck, Michigan. Joined friends Maura and Jim, and husband Carlos, to what ...

The best writing employs the use of the five senses to explore metaphor, to show instead of just tell. In the book, "The How to Think ...

It took a month and a half of weekends to clear our 25-foot Chicago which included hauling ten yard bags of leavings away. I found, as usual...

I've been to a literary reading at Woman Made Gallery before, and it is more than a reading -- it's an experience. Not only can you ...