Introduction by Maeve: Elizabeth’s July post usually features an excerpt from my Chronicles in honor of my feast day, July 22. This year the excerpt comes from the novel that opened the way for my story. Ever since a playdough… Read More ›
Fiction
Wickeder and Wickeder by Barbara Ardinger
The raven was standing on the little table in the wicked witch’s private room. Expecting a new kind of feast, he dipped his beak into a bowl of wiggly white worms. And spat them clear across the room. “Great Suffering… Read More ›
Writing Through the Body: Betty Smith’s A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN by Joyce Zonana
In her 1975 manifesto, “The Laugh of the Medusa,” French feminist Hélène Cixous urges women to write: “Writing is for you, you are for you; your body is yours, take it. . . . Women must write through their bodies,… Read More ›
The Last Man on Earth, Noah, and the Fantasy of Humanity’s Destruction by Lache S.
There are quite a few post-apocalyptic shows out these days. The Last Man on Earth is one example, a television series that is set in 2020, a year after a deadly virus has wiped (almost) everyone out. A handful of… Read More ›
Finding Quantum Magic with the Wicked Witch by Barbara Ardinger
When El Presidente decided his war against his people was insufficient, his toadies began throwing very, very tremendous bombs at the university. When one of those very, very tremendous bombs blew up the university library, pages from exploded books floated… Read More ›
In Honor of Spring: A Novel about our Blue Planet by Marie Cartier
I have written segments of a novel before for the FAR community several times—starting here. What follows are the beginning pages of a new novel (not the one I’ve published segments with FAR before—that one is on hold). I’m sharing… Read More ›
Springing Forward with the Wicked Witch by Barbara Ardinger
El Presidente was enlarging his war against his citizens. This meant the roads were more crowded than before with refugees fleeing the capital city for safety among the farmers on the plains and up in the hills. Some of these… Read More ›
A Light Story by Barbara Ardinger
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— —first there was a dark eye at the window. Then a tap-tap-tapping. Then a long black beak came around… Read More ›
The Dandelion Insurrection: A Must-Read for These Times by Kate Brunner
I don’t know about you, but I am fried. These last two years proved personally & professionally exhausting. And yet, another year looms ahead unavoidably — another incredibly demanding year which will require more than I can fathom I actually… Read More ›
Murder at the Rummage Sale: Book Review by Judith Shaw
Murder at the Rummage Sale (Albany, NY: Imagination Fury Arts, 2016) by Elizabeth Cunningham is a mystery novel with a style and depth of thought that offers not only the fun of figuring out “Who Dun It” but also gorgeous… Read More ›
A “Wicked Witch” Discovers Gratitude by Barbara Ardinger
Once upon a time there lived a youngish woman and her husband on a tiny farm outside the capital city. Their life was satisfactory. But when el presidente declared war on another country, the husband was press-ganged into the army, leaving his… Read More ›
Dystopian Fiction Inspiration and Religious Lessons by Ivy Helman
We live in a dystopia. This world is filled to the brim in dichotomies: poverty and extreme excess, hunger and mountains of food, disease and cutting-edge medicine, materialism and an immense environmental crisis, and hour-long walks for water and hour-long… Read More ›
The Emperor’s New Clothes by Barbara Ardinger
On the day the Big Boss decided he wanted to be the Emperor of Everywhere, the first thing he did was pull on his red cap embroidered with the words Make Me Greater Again. He tied the strings under some… Read More ›
Dandelion Warriors, Incest Survival and An Artist Statement on That Christmas Morning Feeling by Marie Cartier
I have blogged excerpts from my novel That Christmas Morning Feeling in progress previously—the first excerpt here and additional ones here and here. This blog serves as an “artist statement” regarding the novel in progress. I want to discuss in… Read More ›
Naked and Unafraid: Mahasveta Devi (1926-2016) by Vibha Shetiya
Mahasveta Devi died last month at the age of 90 in Kolkata, India. A widely acclaimed Bengali writer, she identified as an activist first, clearly evident in her meticulously researched “fiction.” Most of her stories champion the cause of those… Read More ›
Reading for Fun and Compromise—My Ongoing Search for Feminist Literature by Sara Frykenberg
What I mean to say is, what if, when I wanted to read for fun or simply for the pleasure of reading, I were to put down any book that demonstrated buy-in to kyriarchal ideas, overtly or even in micro-aggressive ways? I have flippantly responded to this question, “then, I may never read any piece of fantasy literature again.”
Who’s In That Clock? by Barbara Ardinger
Hickory, dickory, dock, The mouse ran up the clock; The clock struck one, And down he run, Hickory, dickory, dock. Someone’s been watching that mouse with the suction-cup feet. From her mouth to our ears. You all know my story,… Read More ›
Humpty Had A Mother by Barbara Ardinger
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; All the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty together again. From her mouth to our ears. You see that kid sitting over there on… Read More ›
Practical Lessons in Kindness from the Grasshopper and the Ant by Barbara Ardinger
(With apologies to Jean de La Fontaine for significant changes to his fable) “Curses on that grasshopper!” exclaimed the ever-busy Madame Fourmi. “All he ever does is play. He’ll be sorry when winter comes.” And so it went. Every day,… Read More ›
Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary by Barbara Ardinger
Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow? With silver bells and cockleshells And pretty maids all in a row. From her lips to our ears. Who wrote that poem? I’ve heard that some so-called scholars think it’s about… Read More ›
How the Outdoors Got on Us by Barbara Ardinger
I read some wonderful posts last spring and summer about the beauties of the outdoors. One that especially inspired me was by Molly Meade. If you missed Molly’s description of how she goes out to the “priestess rocks,” read it now…. Read More ›
Wisdom Fiction (Part 2) by Elise M. Edwards
“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” from Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston In my previous two posts, I’ve discussed the wisdom that can be found in black women’s literature. Continuing this series,… Read More ›
Lucy Pick’s Pilgrimage by Mary Sharratt
In medieval Europe, religious devotion provided an alternate narrative for women’s lives in a male-dominated culture. Defiant women who stood up for themselves in the face of rape, incest, and murder were hailed as virgin martyrs. Religious vocations, such as… Read More ›
Wisdom Fiction (Part 1) by Elise M. Edwards
“I was born in a strange little country town that may be like all other country towns, but I do not know. It was the world I was born to. The world is such a place that you need special… Read More ›
No Man Can Spin Gold (Part 2) by Barbara Ardinger
Perdita was in a panic. She looked this way and that, but all she saw was a towering pile of straw. She sat down to breathe deeply and think deeply. While she was breathing and thinking, the little man held… Read More ›
No Man Can Spin Gold (Part 1) by Barbara Ardinger
In a land not too far away there once lived a widow who was so poor and who worked so hard day and night to make a bare living that she had almost no time to teach her daughter the… Read More ›
Truth in Storytelling by Elise M. Edwards
“[Shakespeare] was an alright writer. I did not always understand him, but some things he said were beautiful and he made some things so clear the way he explained people. But one thing he was wrong about. That ‘To be… Read More ›
Another Excerpt from That Christmas Morning Feeling by Marie Cartier
Author’s Note: This post continues to serialize excerpts from my novel, That Christmas Morning Feeling. Please see last month’s post for the initial entry. **************** Book Number Seventeen Look, I’m not the one. I don’t have an investment here. This is… Read More ›
Not a Woman of the Cloth- an excerpt from Murder at the Rummage Sale by Elizabeth Cunningham
When I finished writing The Maeve Chronicles, I returned to a mystery novel, abandoned thirty years earlier. I was finally ready to write about the small town Episcopal Church where I grew up in the 1950s and 60s and to… Read More ›
From Her Lips by Barbara Ardinger
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, She had so many children she didn’t know what to do. She gave them some broth without any bread; She whipped them all soundly and put them to bed. Look!… Read More ›
