You might deem this post “a First World problem” and I’d agree with you. With too many people struggling to feed their families, any...

So I’m pumping gas at the corner of Highway 620 and 183 in Austin when a guy about my age starts chatting to me, lovely morning, where do...

My track record with valuable jewelry is dismal. I've managed to lose almost every "nice" piece anyone ever gave me, from my...

The Hubster and I are watching the "Atlantic Crossing" series on Masterpiece, a historical drama about an apparent romance between FDR...

My husband and I are fulfilling a bucket list dream of moving to the Big Island of Hawaii. According to plans, we will arrive Oct. 23....

Editor's Note: This post was written Aug 11, 2020. Hopefully things have changed since that time, but this post describes our experiences...

In Austin, a species of scarab beetle, a.k.a., the June bug, arrives in March and April. This specimen is Phyllophaga hirtiventris, a...

I love mayonnaise. Always have. When I was a child, my sister and I used to rush inside with a sack of groceries, pull out the mayo jar,...

Either Stacy Livingston Vanbecelaere or Reed Livingston Bates—both are my daughters but I can’t remember which one—gave me a gorgeous...

January 23, 2019 Our male Cockalier (Cocker/Cavalier) Lord Byron has a favorite spot upstairs, a covered porch off our TV-watching room....

January 12, 2019 Our two dogs are named Meryl Streep and Lord Byron. They are 26 and 30 pounds, respectively, long-haired, black and tan,...

January 8, 2019 I’ve just finished writing a novel called Backstory. It’s a fictional account that pretends to be the truth behind an...

November 24, 2018 I run late. About 15 minutes. My daughters do too. My son, well, he’s either early or late. But not being on time is...

October 8, 2018 Dear Readers and Followers: I'm supposed to keep my blog fresh, but sometimes writing a new post takes a good part of the...

July 24, 2018 I have scheduled a book promo for my mystery-thriller Out and In with Lone Star Literary Life, an e-news letter for Texas...

June 24, 2018 Authors write to tell a story, to express a thought or emotion, to entertain. Mostly, we hope what we do impacts readers in...

December 12, 2017 Besides holiday eggnog, I've developed an "over do it" problem with Dresden porcelain angels. Long ago, my niece's mom...

October 15, 2017 My pen name is Pat Dunlap Evans, but my official middle name is Kennedy, which was my mother's birth name. She's gone...

October 8, 2017 Our TV-watching dog Meryl Streep, named after the famed actress, was thrilled that the action-detective show "Hawaii...

October 7, 2017 My degrees are in English, but my academic focus was “creative writing and journalism.” After grad school, I got a job in...