What Inspires: BURNING MAN   Upon arrival at Reno Airport, last Monday, we were greeted by all manner of folks holding “I NEED A TICKET!” signs. “Ticket to what?” Near baggage claim,  a row of tables crowded with “interesting” and “artsy” types with yarn woven into their hair and camping gear, busily passed around papers […]

VAMPIRE BABY has fangs and she knows how to use them!  See for yourself! Watch the VAMPIRE BABY book trailer NOW!      YOUCH Tootie! NO BITE!    

What inspires: The Trinidad State of Mind In Trinidad, “liming” is socializing; “wining” is dancing; both are national pastimes. And, I’ve noticed, although no longer property of the British Empire, residents still adhere to the motto “Keep Calm and Carry On.”  Unlike in England, however, in a distinctly Trini way, the compound phrase has been […]

if i ever doubted the power of kRAzy GLue, i don't NOW. . .

Tootie has fangs! And she knows how to use them… It happens overnight: little sister Tootie goes from cuddly, ga-ga-googoo, I-want-my-ba-ba baby to . . .vampire baby. Now she’s sinking her pointy fangs into everything — furniture, toys, and especially her big brother (“Youch, Tootie! No bite!”). Mom insists that it’s just a phase, but [...]

Yes, I’m a Cat whose been away (and boy have those mice been busy…) They aren’t the only ones. My pal and brilliant writer, Janet Fox has been hard at work as usual! Check out her historical novels FAITHFUL, FORGIVEN, and soon to be released Roaring 20′s romance, SIRENS.This week Janet offered me a helping [...]

Treat your Grands to a FREE SUBSCRIPTION to GRAND Magazine! In honor of Grandparent’s Day, September 9th, the folk at GRAND – The Digital Magazine for GRANDparents and families — are, offering complimentary  subscriptions to my friends. Treat yourself or share the subscription  with the Grands in your life! Sign up for your FREE SUBSCRIPTION: [...]

Hurry! Only 4 days and 17 minutes to enter the fabulous RAMBLING prize Give-Away Package. Don’t miss this opportunity (and see some never-be-for pics and prose) Click over to Cynthia Leitich-Smith’s blog spot. Check out my interview: Career Builder & Giveaway: Kelly Bennett http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2012/08/career-builder-giveaway-kelly-bennett.html And enter to win the Prize! It’s a gob-stopper! WHAT ARE [...]

When the cyn-sational , Cynthia Leitich-Smith, Author of, among others, the Vampire/Werewolf/Romance/Suspense/Fab series TANTALIZE, asks you to take part in her Career-Builder series what else is there to do but. . . SPILL YOUR GUTS! So I did. Read all about it (and be the first to see me in my so groovy ballerina tutu).  Click [...]

Were your “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” Back-to-School essays fact or fiction? Or like mine, some of both. I used to think you had to “go somewhere else” in order to have something “interesting” to write. I’m learning what Tam Smith and Sharry Wright, blog sisters on Kissing The Earth seem to have known [...]

I recently subscribed to Goodreads Quote of the Day. I’m delighted I did; these daily missives provide the jolt needed to spark my sluggish mind. This quote, by the late Carol Shields, author of STONE DIARIES, was the permission–and reminder– I needed to toss aside all those “must-dos” and DO one of my favorite activities: [...]

LGRBT 2012, the LET’S GO RAMBLING BLOG TOUR culminated yesterday at with the LGRBT AWARD CEREMONY. A couple of couple of handsome friends, Pucia & Brujita, drew the WINNERS of our LGRBT Cool Prize Giveaway. ONE DAY I WENT RAMBLING’s talented illustrator of and blog tour organizer extraordinaire, Terri Murphy, recorded the festive finale on [...]

So what if it meant driving on the other side of the road, in a strange car…I didn’t think driving in Trinidad would be a big deal. I drive rental cars in strange cities all the time. For the past 7 years I’ve been riding behind the driver on the wrong side of the road [...]

We’re a little late, but since we’re Rambling by way of celebrating One Day I Went Rambling--which sometimes happens on Roads, and in my family, with Ice Cream--why not treat ourselves? Grab a sweater (don’t forget the jingle) and let’s go get us some!

I’m a Rambling Gal/Made a lot a stops/all over this land . . . Ricky Nelson I hope you’re reading this cause we’re singing your song—and we’ll keep on singing it from now until June 22nd. Why? Because it’s time! Time to welcome ONE DAY I WENT RAMBLING, a new picture book, illustrated by Terri [...]

What Inspires: Looking At It Slant According to a blurb in the Authors Guild Bulletin, Crime novelist Peter James, spends one day a week with friends at the police force, much the way fictional best selling novelist Rick Castle in one of my favorite-escapes TV series, Castle,  shadows love-interest detective, Kate Beckett. (Hard to imagine [...]

  Register for the Let’s Go Rambling Blog Tour! In Celebration of the release of ONE DAY I WENT RAMBLING, Illustrator, Terri Murphy and I are sending our brand new picture book Blog-hopping–make that Blog-Rambling!  From June 8th until June 22, ONE DAY I WENT RAMBLING will make guest appearances on our favorite blogs in [...]

I walked into the most enticing antique shop in La Mesa, California, today. The window display pulled me in; Candlewick glassware and vibrant Fiesta dishes-transparent and dainty juxtaposed with bold, hearty ceramics.   So like me; so like most of us. . . In her recent posting on Write at Your Own Risk, the unofficial [...]

It’s a gray, drizzly, looks like it should be cold out, steamy shower room sort of day in Port O Spain. It’s right that it should that kind of day. Rohemon is dead. Rohemon, our gardener/jaga for the past seven years, all the time we lived in Jakarta, died today, Friday May 11, 2012, sometime [...]

What inspires: Children choosing to read and what! Maybe because his namesake starred in the story, my son Max chose WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE for bedtime reading so many times we can all recite it by heart… Maurice Sendak, the author/illustrator/creator responsible for that story and for bringing to light the truth of good [...]

  Lulu M. Stevens Elem’s in Houston celebrated Earth Day  with a rockin’ Science Fair! Mother Earth shared Not Norman, A Goldfish Story with the kiddles. (But, Norman really really wanted to sneak over to the Mealy worm table!) And dang, wouldn’t he look cool with blinged-up goggles!

Okay, so I’ve only been in Trinidad a week, but I was in the States first, have been for the last six weeks, in fact. You’d think I’d be used to the time change by now, but…  After seven years of living on the other side of the world, I’ve grown accustomed to my yesterday [...]

What Inspires: A Great Story with a Happy Ever After… S.E. Hinton, “Susie” to those who know her, was a student in Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Will Rodgers High School when she wrote The Outsiders, first published in 1967 by Viking Press. Wikipedia  says, “The story was based on a friend of Hinton’s who was jumped for [...]

My first day in our new Trinidad apartment. I promised myself to take it easy, lay low, just hang out and get acclimated. It has been six weeks since I’d left Jakarta, since I’d fully unpacked and been on my own.  I had no intention of meeting anyone, or even leaving the apartment…none. Last night, [...]

What Inspires: Kindred Spirits “Oftentimes writing can feel overwhelmingly lonely, a fool’s errand,” Daniel Alarcon wrote in THE SECRET MIRACLE; THE NOVELIST’S HANDBOOK. (Alarcon was one of the writers included in The New Yorker’s “20 under 40″ list). “It’s gratifying to be reminded that at any given moment, there are thousands of others, working in [...]