Solstice and the Goat

Solstice and the Goat

Myth has it that Zeus was suckled by the motherly goat, Amalthea, when his own mother hid him in a cave to save him from Cronus, his father, who feared dethronement by his child. In time, the goat-nourished Zeus grew to manhood and indeed overthrew Cronus. But it’s the goat’s horn that most fascinates me….

Mercy Street
|

Mercy Street

As the impending Supreme Court decision about the future of abortion reignites polarizing ideologies, Jennifer Haigh’s Mercy Street invites readers to see the issues through a human lens. A master storyteller, Haigh handles her characters with compassion whether they are bitter misogynists, drug dealers, white supremacists or protesters throwing rosary beads like stones at the…

Coming Home

Coming Home

My husband called me to the kitchen window this morning as he made coffee. “Look, the ducks are back.” Sure enough, a mallard and his mate strolled through our backyard, no doubt looking for a place to nest. We live near a creek bed. The ducks return each year in the spring, joining sandhill cranes…

Beholden to Mystery

Beholden to Mystery

At the end of summer a few years ago, I scoped out an empty spot in my garden to plant the mystery daylily I gleaned from a wooden box at farmers market. A handwritten sign on a popsicle stick above the dug-up leftovers invited passers-by to “Take one, or not.” I took one, soil still…

The Barbizon Hotel
|

The Barbizon Hotel

When the heroine of my forthcoming novel, Candlewood, moves to New York City in 1979 to reinvent herself, she stays at the Barbizon Hotel for Women. Although she arrives there through a series of mishaps, she finds herself at the iconic address that launched many a dreamer. Paulina Bren, recent author of The Barbizon: The…

The Father of Lies

The Father of Lies

This January finds me contemplating the underneath of things. Creatures tunnel under the snow making unseen paths, communicating with each other in the dark, feeding each other twigs and nuts, maps and news. And then, one day they emerge. I see their tracks tight and close along fences and rock walls before breaking into open…