Cowgirl Contemporary Fantasy

My son, who cannot read, was helping me make mac and cheese.  He picked up the blue box and squinted.  "What's step one, Mom?" I sniggered and replied, "Cut a hole in the box." "K.  What's step two?" Ummm.....I'll tell you when you're older.

As a  Republican Gay Baptist  pointed out, we are not a country that likes complexity.  We like simple solutions to complex problems.  Failing schools?  Test the snot out of them.  Crime problem?  Throw them in jail and let them rot. Whether you're right wing, left wing, or you hang under the dark underbelly of the plane, like me, the debate over gay marriage is a hotbed of stoutly held opinions.  Lobbyists and other political players benefit from fanning  the flames of outrage on both sides of the issue, complicating things considerably.  In this instance, a simple problem has been made very complex, and the solution is in actuality very simple. In my opinion, gay marriage shouldn't even be an issue.  It should be legal.  Government should not have its nose in the bedroom unless one partner doesn't consent.  Most of those who oppose gay marriage do it for religious reasons.  Religious intrusion into law and polit...

I'm a singer.  Most of the time stage fright is not a problem.  As a pianist, not so much.  I can have mini mental breakdowns in between the Gloria and the Sanctus when I'm playing organ at church.  As a writer I deal with my own fear of not being good enough on a daily basis.  As a music teacher, I teach my students how to deal with their fear from a very young age.  I've had to develop numerous techniques to battle anxiety because all but one of my private voice students are nearly crippled by it. Image by cobrasoft at stock.xchng Though music is my game, fear is my specialty in a lot of ways.  I realized the other day that I've noticed a trend. There are those who conquer their fears and feel amazing for having done so.  There are those who still feel it, but trudge on anyway.  There are those who quit because conquering fear is more difficult than living with it.  Finally, there are those who deliberately sabotage any effort ...

My father loves to argue a point.  As most of the people he knew did anything they could to avoid engaging in an argument they'd never win, my sister and I got to debate with him as we were bouncing in the farm pickup's passenger seat. Photo by  cahdequech  from stock.xchng He strongly believed that all people are born inherently self-centered or evil, ourselves included.  He saw it in his animals, and most especially in small children.  (Think about it.  Most kids have to be taught to share, to take turns.)  I can't find any numbers to back this up, but it seems as though most folks I run into believe the exact opposite:  that evil people are made that way. There are a lot of misconceptions about psychopaths, most of which I've covered in a previous post .  I happen to agree with my father, that people are born selfish or evil, so I never thought much about how believing in man's inherent goodness could make one a victim.  One ...

It's been a while since I've done a review here.  I've had several really bad experiences for a variety of reasons, and I've been taking some time to create a new policy to address several problems. The majority of books I have received are self-published.  Many authors sent me books in dire need of editing.  I felt obligated to read the entire book, so my reviews wound up turning into editing sessions.  This was not always a bad experience.  As a teacher, it's fun to help folks find creative ways to address problems in their projects.  However, I was only able to manage to do it while I had a student teacher, which gave me a lot of time to ruminate on issues and how to solve them.  After I returned to full time teaching, editing was incredibly time-consuming and took time away from my projects. Additionally, I felt I had to be honest, but I'm very good at spinning feedback in a positive way.  However, I had so many books that were substanda...