Cape Porpoise, Maine, 2007. The first snow has come. But why, I wonder, do they always speak of snow as blanketing, as if comforting, warm? Underneath its smooth spread surface I can only imagine a seering cold. On Saturday the ducks hunted for their lunch in icy shallows, pecking algae through a film of ice, advancing spectre.…
The following is an excerpt from JULES AND THE DJINNI MASTER, a middle grade fantasy novel by J.M. Roddy. From J.M. Roddy: This scene happens about midway through the novel. Jules, a fourteen-year-old boy, joins the members of a secret community hidden in the mountains in a world where animals talk. This scene came about from…
“Every man has a map in his heart of his own country, and the heart will never allow you to forget this map.” –Alexander McCalll Smith A couple of months ago, my husband, Matt, and I took a trip to Washington wine country. We left Seattle in the morning commute, crossed over Snoqualmie Pass into…
If there’s something my Italian heritage has taught me, it’s that food brings people together. Not just to eat it. Making pasta is a family assembly line, taking an entire day of talking and drinking wine while hands busily fold and seal tortellini. You make lots and you invite the neighbors. Food is tradition and hospitality, love and gift, shared enterprise and social do.
Kindred 