Learning to walk in bigger shoes

Friday, July 16, 2010 at 9:08 am

Someone asked me, why does a fiction writer blog so often about baseball…the answer is elementary…I write what I know and what I see. Yesterday it was baseball, tomorrow it will be football and basketball with tennis sprinkled in between. It’s in my personality – to talk about what moves me, good or bad, and [...]

Categories: Overview of the Book and Me

Baseball’s more than a game

Friday, July 9, 2010 at 12:08 pm

Baseball season has ended for my sons and not on a high note. Both participated in a World Series – my oldest’s team without heart and my youngest’s with soul. As an adult, you can see it – a team that gives up with the first thing goes wrong, a lack of mental toughness to [...]

Categories: Overview of the Book and Me

Book signings and the Southernly sweet

Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 3:34 pm

Today I had my first real book signing…our local Starbucks hosted the event, and it came on the heels of an article in our local paper about me, my book and its award. Those who came to the signing fell into three groups: readers with no relation to me, old family friends, or the people [...]

Categories: Overview of the Book and Me

Michelangelo’s David graces the diamond

Friday, June 18, 2010 at 1:16 pm

I’m an artist, but I can’t paint a picture, sculpt a head, or draw a circle. My art is writing, but there’s an art to baseball too. There’s a certain grace to fielding a hard, bouncing ball, delicately capturing it in a leather glove, step, step and hurling it across a diamond as if on [...]

Categories: Overview of the Book and Me

Perfection from the dirt of imperfection

Sunday, June 6, 2010 at 7:17 am

Jim Joyce – maybe a name you don’t knew, or perhaps only learned of recently…he’s the umpire who’s incorrect call blew Detroit Tiger’s Armando Galarraga’s perfect game. Rather than berate, cajole, spit, kick or punch, Galarraga did the unexpected – he graciously accepted Joyce’s apology without anger or malice. Remind me again, when do you [...]

Categories: Overview of the Book and Me

Mental toughness from pen and ink

Friday, May 28, 2010 at 6:23 am

“Stinkin’ thinkin’.” You know just what I’m talking about. For me, it would mean walking onto the tennis court thinking I didn’t have a shot to win. Or my sons walking to the pitchers mound thinking “this guy’s going to jack me.” But for those of you who have quit believing, I have a solution [...]

Categories: Overview of the Book and Me

Funerals and their Southern due

Sunday, May 23, 2010 at 1:20 pm

I was recently playing tennis when we heard a police car’s siren. The officer was leading a funeral procession down the road in front of the courts. All of us women stopped our points and matches, faced the line of cars and politely waited to resume play until all had passed. None of us had [...]

Categories: Overview of the Book and Me

When relievers just aren’t

Wednesday, May 19, 2010 at 6:10 am

I watched (sadly) as Joba blew a multi-run lead to the Red Sox last night. The Yankees had the game sewed up, or so I thought. Watching pitchers and as the mother of two, it can be so hard to witness their struggles. I turned off the game – I had seen enough, but as [...]

Categories: Overview of the Book and Me

My kids aren’t writers, and I’m going to have to live with that

Monday, May 17, 2010 at 1:12 pm

When you hold that little baby, you expect to see a lot of yourself in them – maybe not in their infancy, but one day…As I was writing even in elementary school, well, I expected that they too…I was wrong. Neither of my middle school boys care one iota about writing, not now anyway. They [...]

Categories: Overview of the Book and Me

It’s not the size of the dog in the fight…

Friday, May 14, 2010 at 9:34 am

I watched a high school regional championship baseball game last night. Two powerhouses – both pitchers with ERAs under one. I knew what to expect with the local boy, but was shocked to see the size of his opponent – a 5’9″ bulldog. You wouldn’t expect a kid with a 26-0 win record and .44 [...]

Categories: Overview of the Book and Me