marlene-homeWelcome!

I have been a writer ever since we produced a newsletter at Girl Scout camp.  I have also been an elementary school teacher, a natural food store proprietor, and a college instructor. Along the way, I raised four children and wrote four books.

My fifth book, Back to the Land in Silicon Valley, is a memoir of the years my husband and I homesteaded with another couple and our children. I am currently working on a cozy mystery and several nonfiction projects.

These web pages are where I  post my finished work, share peeks at new projects, and connect with my readers. I have been writing a newsletter for a decade now, and you are welcome to wander among the archives or sort on a topic or title. Mostly I write, about food, about families, and about grandparenting.

If you subscribe by entering your email address on the right of this page, you will receive each essay as I finish it.  I hope you will come along on my adventure and also take a look at past posts and join the conversation.

And invite your friends.
stack of books

Marlene

A Much Needed Vacation

On The Road Again To my family, it must seem that I am on vacation all the time. Since I retired, and especially since I moved to southern California, I have made many road trips and enjoyed a couple of spectacular cruises. Of course my flight north during the LA...

Digging Out of the Slough of Despond

The Slough of Despond Following certain actions of the U.S. government around the beginning of July that I will not detail here, having a policy of no politics in my newsletter, I found myself wallowing in negative thoughts and being unable, or unwilling, to "snap out...

Grandma Camp 2025

How Time Flies It seems only yesterday I was on Amtrak riding home from Santa Fe, New Mexico, but suddenly it was Memorial Day, and then June. For their anniversary this year, my son and his wife wanted to spend some grownup time together in Ojai, so their 8 year old...

Spring Break in New Mexico

Spring Break in New Mexico Some time during the winter I confided to my youngest daughter, who lives in Virginia, that I would like to see New Mexico again in the springtime.  In the 70s, the husband of my youth and I had traveled to Las Cruces, in southern New...

Good News — and a Great Loss

Good News I received some amazing news last week. After a year of targeted treatment for melanoma, my PET scan came back with the report “No Evidence of Disease.” When I told my friends and family, they wanted to know “What does that mean?” “Are you cancer-free now?”...
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