My Blog Posts

LoveChild 1: The Ugly Duckling and Me

Growing up, I related to Hans Christian Anderson’s story, “The Ugly Duckling,” because for unknown reasons, I always felt different from the people around me.

LoveChild 1: The Ugly Duckling and Me

18 Tips for Looking After Curly or Wavy Hair

No, I’m not a hair stylist. Just someone who suffered for years because I had no idea what to do with my unruly hair. So I’m offering some thoughts for anyone out there with curly or wavy hair who feels the way I did. I so wish I’d known these things when I was 5 instead

18 Tips for Looking After Curly or Wavy Hair

How I Discovered I Have Curly Hair

If you missed part one of this blog “My Hair Has a Mind of Its Own,” go here. Some days, I look back and wonder how I could have been so obtuse. I mean, as you can see by my picture when I was three, my hair was trying really hard to be curly. And yet,

How I Discovered I Have Curly Hair

If I’d Only Known Years Ago That My Hair Was Curly!

Today, I love my hair, but when I was growing up, it was so frustating to have to put up with hair that, according to my mother, “had a mind of its own.”

If I’d Only Known Years Ago That My Hair Was Curly!

An Unexpected Pregnancy, a Difficult Birth, and Easter: a True Story

This might sound strange, but I never really expected to give birth to any children. I don’t know why. I didn’t expect to get married either. Didn’t anticipate it. Didn’t plan for it or anything. But I did get married, and I did get pregnant. And the whole time, I felt as if it was

An Unexpected Pregnancy, a Difficult Birth, and Easter: a True Story

Am I Weird? A Children’s Book Made Me Feel Better About Being Me

For most of my life, I’ve thought I was kind of weird. Or maybe that there was something wrong with me. Perhaps the easiest way to explain is to tell you how I write my short stories and novels. People are always talking about how to make fictional characters seem real. And there are lists

Am I Weird? A Children’s Book Made Me Feel Better About Being Me

The Wisdom of Madeline L’Engle

What to do when you’re feeling depressed? Read a hope-filled book. For the last four years or so, I’ve felt kind of overwhelmed. People being killed. So much lying and misinformation happening. Terrorist reports. Fears of white supremacy. Rogue police. Disagreements about water rights and climate control. Oil spills. Children without anyone to care for

The Wisdom of Madeline L’Engle

Gone to an Aunt’s: Remembering Canada’s Homes for Unwed Mothers – Part 3

Click here if you haven’t read Part 1 or Part 2 At some point, the unwed mothers of Canada’s Baby Boom (1945 to the early 1970s) went to a local hospital to deliver their babies. Going to the Hospital Most of the women Anne Petrie interviewed, including some young girls, had no idea what was

Gone to an Aunt’s: Remembering Canada’s Homes for Unwed Mothers – Part 3

Gone to an Aunt’s: Remembering Canada’s Homes for Unwed Mothers – Part 2

If you haven’t read Part 1, please click here. Thirty years after she was a resident at a home for unwed mothers, Anne Petrie interviewed a number of other women from across Canada. In addition to telling her own story, Anne profiles six other birth mothers in detail and also mentions comments from other interviews

Gone to an Aunt’s: Remembering Canada’s Homes for Unwed Mothers – Part 2

Gone to an Aunt’s: Remembering Canada’s Homes for Unwed Mothers – Part 1

A couple of years ago, I had a character in one of the novels “go to her aunt’s” when she was young. I’d heard the phrase somewhere along the way and remembered it was a common cover story for young, unmarried women who were pregnant. In my novel, the woman is old, and she’d “gone

Gone to an Aunt’s: Remembering Canada’s Homes for Unwed Mothers – Part 1

The Girls Who Went Away, part 2 – the effects of adoption on baby boomer birth mothers

If you haven’t read part 1 of this post, click here. 6. In the years from 1945 to 1973, closed adoption was virtually a given for most unwed young women. Prior to 1945, illegitimate children were usually given to a family member or someone the family knew—either to be raised as their own, or until

The Girls Who Went Away, part 2 – the effects of adoption on baby boomer birth mothers

The Girls Who Went Away: Part 1 – the treatment of unwed mothers during the baby boom

When I was four years old, my mother told me I was adopted. I said something along the lines of “Okay.” And that was, essentially, that. Forty-four years later, I met my birth mother. But even after meeting her, I really didn’t think much about it. I wasn’t angry or upset that I’d been adopted.

The Girls Who Went Away: Part 1 – the treatment of unwed mothers during the baby boom

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