See you at Ghost Ranch in October?

A few days ago I got an enthusiastic e-mail from a woman named Cathy, who told me, “My husband just gave me the best possible birthday gift: an all-expenses-paid trip to the Fall Writing Festival at Ghost Ranch!”

Cathy signed up for my class, KISS: Keep It Short & Shapely, which meets October 9-15. It’s a workshop on the art and craft of the short essay. We laugh a lot, sometimes shed a tear, hear some great essays, and write some great essays. My last class did such fine work that they published a beautiful chapbook together.

I hope you will consider giving someone (say, yourself) the gift of being part of the Fall Writing Festival at Ghost Ranch. Visit here to access the whole online catalog.

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Berry Season

It’s that time of year! There are plenty of things I dislike about summer: heat, humidity, mosquitos, fireworks, skimpy clothing, skimpy shoes, the raging weeds in my yard, having to wear (and not lose) sunglasses.

But I love the food, and especially the raspberries in Michael’s backyard. Last weekend we made the most wonderful berry cobbler. The topping had an egg in it (usually I do some variation on four ingredients: oatmeal, flour, sugar, and butter). It turned out basically to be warm raspberries bubbling up through oatmeal cookies. With vanilla ice cream…perfect.

The sugar snap peas aren’t bad, either.

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