colorful rooster

Funny Things Kids Say- Write it down

I’m not leaving it to memory–that faulty device–those things that make me laugh. We all need more laughter, laughing at ourselves and the ways our kids internalize what we think we taught them… Here’s a post I wrote over at MaMoMeMo, my blog for the month of May. The Jesus Chicken  

blue ink pen scribble drawing of a face in the tree branches

Drawing for the Health of It

It makes sense now that I fell in love with a writing pen. I’m a writer, always trying to tell a story, even with my art. Through the years, drawing has also become a meditative experience that is calming and stabilizing, increasing my mindfulness, creativity, and health.

Celebrating Birth-days

You celebrate your children’s birthdays, your husband’s, and your own birthday, but do you also celebrate you on the day you gave birth? I do. Which means I have 6 extra birth-days a year, and I deserve a bit of celebration myself on every one of them. 15 years ago today I gave birth to […]

Interviews and Other Views

Women-On-Writing’s Renee Roberson asked some fun questions that made me think about ekphrasis, the writing process, and the novel I’m working on. They do this when you win a story award. Take a quick break and enjoy The Muffin, with coffee or tea, and me! https://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/2022/04/interview-with-lori-lynn-greenstone.html

Things You Might Miss

about your partner… It’s inevitable, I suppose, after being married a certain and very large number of years, like 42 or so– your friends start losing their partners in various ways… They’ve tossed or replaced them, and some have died. So you start thinking of what you might miss about your own partner. I start […]

Ekphrasis of the Schuffeneckers: Gifts Bestowed wins award

Stare at a painting and eventually it will begin to tell its story- that’s ekphrasis, my favorite way to write. I’ve been working on the novel, An Ear to Hear, about the woman, Rachel, who received the gift of Vincent’s ear after it was sliced from his head. Many secrets surround this historical, almost mythical […]

The Laughing Giraffe Draft

How an art installation can help you trust your creative process- Do you ever get a vision of something you’d like to create but don’t know the process that might turn your idea into a reality? I envisioned a life-size giraffe grazing on the tree tops in my yard, a spirit animal* with a whimsical […]

How Small Prompts Help You Nano

And how to use them to keep the story flowing If you write with random prompts, or have, you are probably already a believer- this is the way; write in it. But even a believer falls by the wayside, forgets what tips and tricks have helped them in the past, and resorts to staring at […]

Ekphrastic Mama meets Mama Matanuska

Like a huge bird our airplane touches down on the tarmac and soon makes a turn–we are here in Cordova, Alaska, turning away from the mountains and rivers so immense it tries the mind, taking in this northern tundra from above–what specks we are, yearning for meaning, traveling at high speeds, and covering so much […]

A New Thought for Today

I have lots of old thoughts that circulate regularly so when a new thought flits by I notice it and see if it’s one I want to keep. Today’s thought, early on this Sunday morning Mother’s Day, was about privilege, a hot topic and one I’ve been entertaining in new ways. This new thought took […]

the journal gift

The Embossed Journal

In the mail today a gift arrived, wrapped and tied up with a silky ribbon, a leather-bound journal with a name on it—Lore. It differs from my given name by only one letter, but somehow this e in place of the i makes all the difference— Lore embossed in gold on soft, sumptuous leather so […]

The Year-End Letter

Dear Friends & Family,We end this year with gratitude and send our heartfelt greetings, especially to those who’ve lost jobs, co-workers, friends, or loved ones. Whatever challenges you’re facing, we hope and pray love wins… During this year of going nowhere, instead of traveling to far off places, we’ve escaped into the local forests around […]

Walking Away

Small plane goes off runway and crashes in San Diego County; pilot walks away. My friend sends me this snippet on e-mail, a thin connection to our past lives from ten years ago when I lived in the village near the runway where the small plane went off and a man walked away. Later, this […]

Big Eyes off the deck

How is NaNo Serving You?

At the end of a very interesting first week of NaNo, how are you feeling about your writing? It has been an up-and-down week for me, but it’s ending on a high note. I hope you feel the same. Here are some of the ways I’ve gotten myself back on track when enthusiasm or motivation […]

Make Nanowrimo Work for You

NaNoWriMo has been part of our family vocabulary since 2009 when two of our sons, ages 12 and 15, each wrote 50K+ novels while schooling from home. I was finishing an M.A. in Lit./Writing at the time, with no spare moments to craft a novel, which made me envious. Since then I’ve done NaNo off […]