A little something for Valentine's Day. Not an ode to a person but love of a living thing. Thorny vines clinging to an old barbed wire fence. Delicate petals scorching under the Texas sun, edges turning from palest pink to scorched brown. Despite their delicate nature and the tenacious tendency to cling, and the thorns to catch, being in the vicinity of these roses will make you realise the truth of selective breeding.

YouTube video by McGee Travel Tales

Wetlands may look quiet on the surface, but they are some of the most powerful ecosystems on Earth and right now, they are under serious threat. From marshes and swamps to mangrove forests and riverb...

I really wanted this week's post to be about the beautiful trails we rode in Utah. But in light of resent events, I thought a look at history was a better use of my time. Here are some sights related to the events of WWII that I think are particularly meaningful now. US History: Amache National Historic Site This was not a POW camp, this was a concentration camp.

YouTube video by McGee Travel Tales

YouTube video by McGee Travel Tales

YouTube video by McGee Travel Tales

YouTube video by McGee Travel Tales

We are Patchouli Joe's Books & Indulgences and we are hoping to fundraise enough mone… Patchouli Joes needs your support for Support Patchouli Joe's in Denton

I am back after the chaos of the holidays. The prompt for this week was to write a poem while using the figurative language, apostrophe. Apostrophe: Apostrophe as a figure of speech is when a character addresses someone or something that isn’t present or cannot respond. The character might speak to someone deceased, an inanimate object, or a concept (

The main portion of this trip was in Utah. My sister planned this trip months ago, booking horse camp spots and getting passes that would allow us to ride in Bryce Canyon National Park. We drove from Williams, Arizona to Flagstaff to pick up our mules and horse that my parents had hauled up. From Flagstaff we drove to Utah. For this trip we stayed at the…

I did not take pictures as I cooked this recipe because, honestly I forgot. There was a lot going on. That being said, this recipe got a lot of love at the party I made it for. This recipe does require an immersion blender. A food processor could be used but it would probably be a bit more difficult. Also, I made a large pot of soup for a party, feel free to cut down on the amount as needed.

2025 has been a busy year! I feel like I am playing catchup with my hobbies. I miss things and yet have little time for them. That being said its because I've gotten the chance to do and see some pretty cool things. This summer we spent a couple of days in Arizona before heading up to Utah. Grand Canyon…

The prompt this week was to write a poem with a hyperbole. Some were serious, mine was written to be funny. Hyperbole: exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally (Grammarly.com). Also, I am sorry for not posting more. In addition to the normally busy life I lead, the holidays are upon us. I hope the holidays are treating you all well.

I try and do poetry once a month and lately I've been highlighting using Figurative Language. This week we looked at antithesis. My hope with this is to make writing club members aware of tools that they can use later in other writing projects. Antithesis: uses parallel structure to juxtapose contrasting ideas. (Grammarly.com) This prompt inspired some beautiful pieces.

The prompt that produced this story was "Found Footage." The inspiration was The Blair Witch Project. This is probably the best well know found footage movie. This was a great way to end the Halloween season. My short story does not deal with video but film. This is the unpolished, original story. I will probably go in and clean up this story a bit.

In my quest to learn to write concisely in creative endeavors the prompt this week, in the spirit of Halloween was two sentence horror. Write a horror story in just two sentences. This was very difficult but people also really liked this prompt. I do love a challenge. Do you enjoy reading horror? Have you ever tried to write this way?

A couple of times a year I get the chance to hangout on the sidelines with Keltin for a Tarleton football game. This last weekend the Texans played the ACU Wildcats and... lost their first game of the season 31 to 28. The score makes it look like they played well, having watched the game, I'm not sure that was the case until the 4th quarter.

If you have read enough original Grimm or Anderson fairy tales you know that Disney had to tone them way down to be G rated. The prompt this week was to retell a fairy tale and in the spirit of spooky season - go dark with it. I don't think my retelling is really horror but it was a fun writing prompt.

Denton Writing Club's first zine! Depending on how this one does we will look at publishing more on a schedule but for now, we are just super happy to have this one live! There are also print versions. I have to give full credit to the members of the writing club that are willing to share their work like this with the public.

I'm behind on posting. I feel like this is a consistent problem. Anyway, I am consistent with writing club and one of the things that I've started doing is highlighting figurative language. This week's was alliteration. Definition: Alliteration refers to repeating consonant sounds right next to each other, which creates a memorable or melodic effect. (Grammarly.com) I chose mine to be fall themed.

I know I haven't posted as much as I intended this summer. I have been busy, in good ways: Working on my novel rewrite (40k words and counting) Running the Denton Writing Club Prepping for a trip where we are taking mules and a horse Honestly, this last part has taken the most time because for trip like this you have to get the animals in shape as much as you do yourself, along with getting all their health stuff sorted, and making sure all your gear is in good condition. Anyway, hope you all are doing well. Enjoy these videos of horses and mules. Safe travels.

It is officially fall and for the writing group that means it is the start of spooky season. We are starting off with a prompt about meeting a cryptid or creature from folklore. This could be in any context. Yes, I did mix my folklore creatures from different regions. This was a fun pieces. Some of the pieces produced were creepy, some were funny but all were well done.

If you have been following along for a while you know that at club have been working on writing concisely. This prompt is called a Hint, a story written in just 25 words. I have been working on shortening one particular story over time. Telling a story in 25 words is difficult. A lot of us found that our 25 word stories were actually great attention grabbers for a longer piece.