Opinion

There’s something about being an author that is very addictive. Sometimes you can be midway through the tedious proofing of a manuscript — most writers’ least favorite thing — and already be working on the plot for the next book. Sometimes — as is the...

The other day I had invited one of my best friends to come down from Oregon to have lunch and just catch up. Gordon has a son that lives off the grid up in Oregon, and so he spends a lot of time up...

With the advent of 24-hour news coverage by numerous networks, we now have a multitude of current events coverage; coverage that invariably comes with opinion-fueled rhetoric offered up by everyone from professional pundits to amateur analysists and simpering sycophants to determined detractors. And with...

Local column by Joanne Banuelos

I’ve been on the tour circuit these past couple weeks. Not like a rock star tour circuit, but a circuit of sorts. For those of you who know me, you know I’m a writer not a speaker, so this concept has been a little...

Did you know the month of July was named after Julius Caesar? An online search revealed that flowers that represent July include larkspur and water lily and people born in the month of July are known to be naturally adventurous, kind and sympathetic.  For MCFL,...

Did you find something different in your mailbox this past weekend? By different I mean something that wasn’t there. By something that wasn’t there, I mean my weekly scribbling. I have to tell you that it was all my fault.  You see, like all newspapers,...

“We’ll be moving to Montana,” she said matter of fact. “How exciting, darling!” I expressed and, yes, it would be exciting for them. For me too, as I would have a new place to visit. I recall so clearly, when I moved to the Central...

The definition of the word “volunteer,” according to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, is a person who does a job without being paid for it. That’s pretty straightforward, but in my opinion it falls a bit short of the mark; if one takes the...

I’m going to tell you a secret. Oh, it’s nothing nefarious or secretive. It’s just something I decided to do a few years ago and it hasn’t been a tremendous success. I’m getting older you know. People usually are nice enough that they say,...