The End

I recently published my first edited book,  Labor of Love: A Literary Mama Staff Anthology ,  with  Small Harbor Publishing . It's an anthology of writing from  Literary Mama  staff over the past 20 years. It's a beautiful collection and I am proud of the writers and proud to share the book.  It seems a fitting moment, as I pondered sharing about the book here on the blog, to reflect on my life as a blogger, and acknowledge that it is time to officially end this blog.   I started blogging in about 2007, when my baby was learning to toddle, when I was learning how to be a mother and stepmother, when I was just starting to see my way as a writer. I needed it back then. I craved it. I had a variety of blog iterations--family, art, creativity, writing things I delved into. There's a freedom in blogging, a casualness, an easy familiarity that's lacking (for me anyway) in other kinds of writing. I loved blogging and the words came pouring out.  Ove...
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Jellicoe Road


I find it very difficult to well, judge a book by its cover.  However, one bit of synchronicity I find fairly often in my life is at the times when I go to pick up a new book. Not knowing what the inside pages will hold, I usually am fairly lucky at picking out a book that I end up liking quite well.

This very thing happened last time I was at the library.  I randomly pulled off the shelf an orange-covered book called Jellicoe Road, by Melina Marchetta.  The brief description read well enough, but I had little time to make my choice, so home this book came. 

It turns out to be an Australian novel.  Being that I have spent a bit of time in Oz, I was pleasantly surprised by this. As I began to read, I became quite taken with the storytelling style, as well as with the main character, Taylor Markham.

Essentially, the story is about a teenage girl who is struggling to put together the pieces of her disjointed life.  She lives at a boarding school, is the secret leader of the student body, and is trying to figure out the truth of her childhood, her family, and her place in it all. It seems a fairly straightforward storyline, one that's been done before.  But Marchetta tells Taylor's story in superbly crafted pieces, so that we, and Taylor, get just enough info on each page to keep us wanting to turn to the next.

I thoroughly enjoyed Jellicoe Road, and long for more well-written and compelling, heart wrenching and honest, good reads such as this.  Definitely don't judge a book by it's cover, but rather, step inside and let a good story fill you up.

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