Donna's Muse Papers

I am blessed to have grown up in a family that loved tradition, but didn’t mind being flexible when circumstances called for changes. Daddy worked shift work, so sometimes birthdays and even Thanksgiving dates were moved so he could be part of the festivities. Now that my children are grown, and even their children are grown, we gather at my house on Saturday after Thanksgiving Day. That allows my girls to have Thanksgiving at home or with their spouse’s families without them having to take turns or try to hectically fit it all in on one day. This year we are not even going to try to do the whole turkey dinner thing. The center piece of the menu will be my mama’s scalloped oysters. Julia will make them since she gets it closest to “right”. Mama didn’t have a recipe written down, so it is all by memory.   I am fixing a spiral cut ham and roasted veggies. I am cooking up some fresh pumpkin and haven’t decided what I’ll do with it yet. My daughter, Julia, says she is bringing

Some writers, once they have finished writing a book, struggle over whether they should look for an agent or a publisher. “Do I want to give 15% of my royalties to an agent?” they ask themselves. I have had both experiences. My children’s fiction was published without an agent and I can say I had no problems in dealing directly with my publishers. The publisher was a regional, non-profit and we had the same goals – to share North Carolina’s stories with young readers. When The Book of Miniature Horses was published I was collaborating with a photographer, and he already had a literary agent. I “inherited” the agent with the collaboration. I went on to writing The Book of Draft Horses and The Book of Mules without collaboration but still with the agent’s representation. I have never regretted that she gets her 15%. I think she earns every penny of it. She negotiated my contract with the publisher, getting a higher advance than they offered, caught clauses that were not in

There is a little spider that has been living in my office window between the glass and screen for a long time. I am sure it has been keeping me company well over a year, maybe two. One day as I watched it travel up and down its enclosed environment I wondered, “How long do spiders live anyway?” Of course I turned to Google to find my answer. I learned it depends. It depends on the gender and species of the spider. Females generally outlive males – in part because some spiders like the Black Widow eat their mates after mating. Females can live several years. Some live only two years while the big ones live the tarantula can live as long as twenty-five years. I am not sure of my spider’s species. It is small, at least compared to the wolf spiders that show up on my patio at night in search of bugs drawn to the light. I don’t think it ever leaves its habitat between the screen and glass of my window. I suppose that is a safe place for a spider to live. Nothing can get