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This morning, I participated in a Unitarian Universalist service on Buddhism and contributed a short reflection and meditation. My talk is below on YouTube, and the text is pasted underneath. As a practicing Buddhist and a Unitarian, I’ve come to the conclusion that religion is like breath: it belongs to everyone. As I’ve said in print about my novel, THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders,  “the evangelicals don’t own religion—even if they think they do.” Hope is associated

Note: I am re-blogging this in honor of World AIDS Awareness Day, which was on December 1st 2025. Every now and then comes that rare book that brings your life rushing back to you.  How To Survive A Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS  by David France (Knopf 2016) is one such book. The book chronicles the AIDS epidemic from the early 1980s – when the mysterious “gay cancer” started appearing — to 1995 when hard-won advancements in research and phar

I thought I'd do a post on ThanksLiving today. Since we've been vegan (before actually becoming vegan), we have attended a local Thanksliving event — a vegan community potluck honoring the animals, including the human ones. The post is below: As Thanksgiving approaches, I want to emphasize the importance of reinventing tradition. This particular tradition is fraught with horrible origins. To read my review of Joy Harjo’s memoir, Poet Warrior , click here. For the animals, fo

This week, I thought I'd repost a review I did of Joy Harjo's memoir, Poet Warrior. The text of the review is below, below the YouTube videos of Joy playing the flute and then one of me reading the review. I was going to say Happy Thanksgiving -- but even that is something to think about. I’ve long followed the work of Joy Harjo—far before she was Poet Laureate of the United States. When I discovered that she had a recent memoir called Poet Warrior (2021; W.W. Norton & Comp

This week, I thought I would post a short review of my novel CINNAMON, a dairy cow's (and her farmer's) path to freedom that was published by The Prairies Review . The reviewer reflects on the end of the book where the farmer turns her family farm into a sanctuary, "a place of peace for Cinnamon, Spice, and their herd to live safely." Living safely--isn't that what we all want? The video below features me reading the review, and the text is pasted below that. Heartfelt, thoug

In the interest of continuing to connect my past with my present, I am posting a poem from my collection a woman alone that I wrote twenty-five years ago when I was on a pilgrimage to the poet Sappho's homeland in Lesvos, Greece. Sappho was a lesbian poet who lived around 600 BCE. I just read a quote on mindfulness that you cannot embrace the present without claiming who and where you came from. Seems appropriate. The text of the poem is below the video from YouTube. a woman

I wanted to put something scary on my blog this weekend for Halloween. Then I thought of my novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders published by Adelaide Books (New York; Lisbon). I am queer (and now a vegan) and write through that lens. I have multiple novels published on different topics. But for whatever reason, I have been harassed the most for my novel THEY. Maybe it is obvious, but the harassment tells me THEY (though published in 2018) is still needed, perhaps

One of the unforeseen benefits of becoming vegan is a deeper connection to the animals. When I went vegan, the animals began coming into my mind and speaking to me. That's how I wrote CINNAMON, a dairy cow's (and her farmer's) path to freedom (Adelaide Books -- New York and Lisbon). Just the other day, I read with great interest in QSpirit that St. Francis was queer. I have long been interested in St. Francis of Assisi, who is strongly associated with animals, and this new

I was inspired by some recent events concerning my book Tea Leaves, a memoir of mothers and daughters , (Bella Books, 2012), to post two brief excerpts from the book in honor of LGBTQ History Month. History intersects in us. In my case, history intersected in class as well as in the history of feminism, which became LGBTQ history. The YouTube video of me reading from Tea Leaves is below, and I have pasted the text underneath.   My mother had always been active—walking four m

In honor of October being LGBTQ+ history month, I've decided to post a brief excerpt from my novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret...

I was inspired by World Animal Day (October 4th) and a blessing of the (mostly) stuffed animals service at the Unitarian Universalist...

In honor of October being LGBT history month, I decided to post an excerpt from my novel Loving Artemis, an endearing tale of...

Recently, I was delighted to find out that an excerpt from my recently finished novel I AM the WOLF, a novel of ecology and rewilding ...

Lately, I've been thinking about the importance of connecting the past with the present. This is especially true, since when going to a...

After being harassed online for my novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders (published by Adelaide Books--New York and Lisbon--in...

I've posted a brief excerpt from my novel CINNAMON, a dairy cow's (and her farmer's) path to freedom (from Adelaide Books in New York and...

In honor of Labor Day, I thought I would repost this excerpt from Tea Leaves, a memoir of mothers and daughters. keeping our dreams...

Lately, I've been thinking about the importance of connecting the dots between the past and present. I was a poet before I was a prose...

This week, I thought I'd post a brief excerpt (a paragraph) from my novel CINNAMON, a dairy cow's (and her farmer's) path to freedom ...

Today, I wanted to bring you this brief review of my novel CINNAMON, a dairy cow's (and her farmer's) path to freedom (from Adelaide...