The Archer
The mare and her foal and me near Irene's Tree. We've moved into the last portion of autumn and are heading into winter here in the place that time and Democrats forgot. Belle has some snow, some...
View ArticleDriftwood and Bone
Driftwood and Bone - Robert ClementsI have a new writing space, and this is the very first piece of writing, here in this new place. I'm listening to 'I and Love and You' by the Avett Brothers. Plus...
View ArticleHow I got that story...
October woods, 2011, Quaker Point, West Bath, MaineI've been thinking lately about mentors. I don't know what sparked that, but if we had a list of random thoughts that stray through our brains on...
View ArticleThe silence of the hogs
Snow on the prairie, February 27th, 2011 It's 2 degrees, which is downright balmy. Ish. It's above zero for the first time in days. Belle Fourche is actually located just this direction of the...
View ArticleOh this beautiful day
Molly Frances Leopin, October 2010, Morse's Mountain, Sewall Beach, Phippsburg, MaineMarch 21, 1979. A beautiful spring day in Bath, Maine. I was 27 years old. The morning began green and blue and...
View ArticleCranes, bluebirds, meadowlarks, and turkeys
Meadowlark - photo by Robert ClementsThis is my first spring on the prairie, and the grass is greening slow but sure. The days are getting warmer, more or less, unless the wind blows. The wind...
View ArticleWhen Life Hands You Lemmon
The largest Petrified Wood Park in the world is in Lemmon, South Dakota.May was. Well, it was. My family was shaken to its core with the sudden death of a beloved Uncle. I flew back East to attend...
View ArticleThis One is for Devon
Two goats, one hat. Photo by Robert Clements.I've been an on-steroids hummingbird migrating back and forth between Maine and South Dakota since July 6th, and I haven't settled enough to have any deep...
View ArticleSheep Mountain
Sheep Mountain, in the southern unit of the Badlands. Photo by Robert Clements.For some reason, well, for the reason that I'm technically challenged, I find it hard to get onto the blog lately. Not...
View ArticleThank you
In about two weeks, I will be traveling east for four months. My book, Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea, will be published on January 23rd, 2012, eleven days after I turn 60 years old. It promises to...
View Article60
Sunrise, Atlantic Ocean, East Coast. Photo copyright, Shannon Thorne. Simply ShannonI arrived via Cesarean, delivered by a doctor named G.W. Twaddle, on January 12, 1952. That makes me 60 years old...
View ArticleLeap Year
Signing at Longfellow Books, Portland, Maine. Photo by Berry Manter.This day doesn't exist for the next three years, so it's important to take advantage of that fact and celebrate its appearance. It's...
View ArticleThe Not-So-Stuffy Book Club
Red Ruby Heart underneath the lights.I love book clubs, as I mentioned in the last post, because, for the most part, people have read the book and I am pleased, as an author, to be able to discuss the...
View ArticleShe writes because she loves it
My friend, Maxine, and me.I have been trying to convince my friend, Maxine, to publish her work. She graciously pooh poohs that notion. She writes gorgeous essays, historical pieces and book reviews,...
View ArticleThe Process of Writing
Brief update. We are living in a one-level ranch-style house in beautiful Spearfish, South Dakota. As one friend said, it sounds like a place where a writer would live. Well, this writer lives here,...
View ArticleFamily ReOnion
Red hot dogs and hamburgers. Trademarks of a Maine family reunion.I straggled back to a family reunion in August, while I was back in Maine. We have only ever had family reunions on my mother's side....
View ArticleA Portrait: Flannel Coat, Covered with Cat Hair, on a Chair in the Study
Jessie Callan Rogers sleeping in the truck.I am putting off going into my study. The day before yesterday, I walked into that room, picked up my cat, Jessie, from where he was curled like a comma on my...
View ArticleDistractions
If I were my boss, I'd fire me.Biggest distraction of all. Myself. (Photo by Heather Perry Weafer - who was doing her job.)I used to work for other people. I worked for other people for over 40 years....
View ArticleA Girl and a Yearling
Cozy doe, resting after the first snowfall in Spearfish, back in November.A doe and two fawns are lying in my backyard this morning, long legs folded neatly, eyes half shut, chewing cud. It thrills me...
View ArticleBird Feeder
This is how he works.I make an impulse buy of bird food at Safeway, figuring I'll begin to feed the birds. I bring it home and put it down by the boots and coats in the mudroom of our house. He comes...
View ArticleI Miss My Girls
No photos on this one because there are too many to post and because this post has to do with the heart, rather than the eyes. It has to do with people who knew me before electronics, before...
View ArticleSomewhere Near Tomato Can Buttes
Yesterday, on one of our road-trips up north, we had a traffic event. Robert, who knows how to keep a cool head during interesting vehicle shenanigans, managed to keep us on course. He has written a...
View ArticleANY MESSAGES?
I once saw a New Yorker cartoon in an issue published either close to or in the midst of spring. A happy bird sat on the windowsill of an open window with its beak cracked open in a wide grin. "I'm...
View ArticleThe License Plate Game
My South Dakota License Plate. It's hard to read. Take note, all who pass me. I'm an old hand at traveling back and forth from South Dakota to Maine and back. A distance of 2100 miles to and 2100 miles...
View ArticleGonna Climb Me a Mountain
Rua and I near the top of Lookout Mountain. Lookout Mountain isn't intimidating. It doesn't loom over the City of Spearfish like a citadel. True, it's 4,452 feet high, but that's only 800 feet above...
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