Tag: literary reading

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At the end of September, my husband Tim and I traveled to my home state of Michigan to visit my siblings on my mother’s side, and to meet cousins on my father’s side. From there, we took a two-day jaunt to the Upper Peninsula for my first look at Lake Superior. And then home through Wisconsin, where I visited my sister and nieces on my father’s side.

These are long-lost family. I’m adopted. This is birth family I’ve found and been getting to know over the past several years. I’ll have plenty more to say on this subject!

For now, though, here’s a trail reading of my story Crossing Over, from Ghost Parachute magazine.

This story is one of those that went quickly once I started writing it. Though this story took a tragic turn, writing fast as I did with this story is a blast! The narrator’s voice came through loud and clear, and I followed along.

The reading is alongside the Cedar River near the Cedar River Natural Area, Bellaire, Michigan. We stayed at a phenomenal Air BnB near there. I hope to stay there again my next visit north.

Additional footage is from, in order: 12 Oaks Vineyard (Carlyle, Illinois); foot bridges over the Kaskaskia River in central Illinois; Rocky Bluff trail near Devil’s Kitchen Lake in Southern Illinois; Falls of Rough, Kentucky.

I hope you enjoy!

PS – Tell me about your favorite bridges!

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If you look at a map of Illinois, at the bottom, where the state is shaped like an arrowhead point, you’ll see a whole big swath of that part of the state is Shawnee National Forest. Which is part of the reason I moved here. Once you get into Southern Illinois, though, you realize that the forest is more like a patchwork quilt in areas, interspersed with farmland, vineyards, houses, pasture.

I live near part of the patchwork. It’s literally true to say part of the Shawnee Forest is across the street from me. If I walked sort of northwesterly, I could go several miles until I came to Panthers Den Wilderness area, or either of the two wineries in that general direction, and never leave the forest. But there are places where I would be able to see sky on either side, and probably private property. Nevertheless, part of the forest it is, and I love having it there.

This story, “We All Make Mistakes,” appearing in The Tiny Journal, is inspired in part by my several encounters with venomous snakes in the area — Copperheads and also Water Moccasin (aka Cottonmouth). It’s also partly a musing on how sometimes we do things in spite of having misgivings, and how sometimes these things are mistakes. We all do it.

I hope you enjoy! (PS – Is there a way to make the video still so I don’t look silly? LOL)

“We All Make Mistakes”in The Tiny Journal