Writers in the Woods For nearly two years now, I've served as the California Writer's Club Writer in Residence at Joaquin Miller Park. I've driven the five minutes from my house up the hill almost a hundred times, seeking meditation and bird song and inspiration and exercise and time to write. I've written three or four dozen blog posts about my adventures there, interacting with ...

The Winning Family is back in print, with a fresh new energy and a fresh new voice: mine! I am now the narrator of my mom's memoir/self-help book. After 35 years, it finally felt safe to put myself into a book about my family. My mother built her career around this book. It helped shape the national narrative around parenting, teaching people how to create ...

Maybe you've heard about the ill-concieved merger, um AGGRESSIVE CORPORATE ACQUISITION of Mills College? I've been working with various groups in the Mills Rebel Alliance to fight this insult and injury to women's rights, LBGTQIA protection, cultural arts and women's history, since the first lie came out in March, 2021: "We're broke." On July 1, 2022, Mills ceased to exist, becoming a campus for an ...

Check out my new story in the California Literary Review (page 36). Here's the back story! It all started as a writing game called "Storied Stories" in one of my Covid Zoom writer's groups, To Live and Write in Alameda (which became To Live And Write...Wherever You Are in the great Reconfiguration of 2020). Writing coach and teacher Bronwyn Emery imagined a Craftsman house in ...

There was this cat who used to hang out in our yard. When we had a dog, she'd chase that cat. When she died, the cat would sit on her grave. Every day. My husband was sure the cat was evil. But he's a dog person. I'm a cat person. My best friend growing up was a gray cat named Greeneyes. I'd had a cat ...

Inspired by a poster I saw at a protest (whoever thought of it is a genius), I once intended to create and syndicate an ongoing cartoon panel with an environmental theme. When it took me six months to create the first three editions, I realized I could never output one a week. Still, these three are still relevant, thirty years later. You can even see ...

This month, the Mills College administration announced it's pulling the plug on this historic college, my 2nd alma mater, in favor of an Institute for Women's Leadership. Just as in the 1990 student strike, students and alumnae are going, "whaaa?" and "hells no!" They are asking for ideas from the community to envision and shape a new Mills. Here's my response. I am so glad ...

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"I'd invite you in for a minute but.. (lengthy explanation of who I've seen and what I don't know)." "I'd like to hang out but... (lengthy explanation of who I've seen and what I don't know)." "I'd give you a hug but..." The long explanations and hyper-vigilance are getting stressful. Almost as stressful as self-isolation. With the holidays around the corner, I was wondering why ...

My ancestors are either bursting with pride or rolling in their graves. My animated (storyboarded) play, The Dirndl Diaspora, is getting great reviews! Get tickets for the 2022 screening! This 90-minute animated/storyboarded feature-length film was written as a play + fashion show for Oaktoberfest, but 2020 decided we couldn't have live theater, so I upshifted the whimsy. This story, about a seamstress with a dream to ...

Please share this event with parents in your community! Kids are back to school (sort of)—a great time for parents to tune up their own skills! Join me for a Saturday Night Stuck-at-Home Survival social for parents: Peaceful Parenting in Stressful Times A Zoom class for parents seeking greater family ease, connection, and mental/emotional health with Kristen Caven featuring Dr. Louise Hart Authors of The ...

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Shelter in Place, day Lebenty-Seven: I cleaned out all the cool clothes from my closet that don't fit me right now. Anyone else out there who's put a few pounds on? I'm calling mine the Covid 19.  I've decided to put some of my certifications* to use and teach a nutrition class to complement my other day job of teaching dance fitness. Join me for ...

Poetry is pouring out of this pandemic and seeping into my screen. This vivid blast of creativity and vision has been a lifeline of hope amidst the uncertainty and anxiety. I'm collecting some highlights on this page. First out of the gate was Lockdown by Father Richard Hendrick. The next thing on my radar was The Poetry Pandemic by Randall McNair, a member of my ...