One of my online writing communities had an in-depth discussion a while back about profanity and its place (or lack thereof) in literature. I got to thinking, as I read people’s perspectives, that there’s a pretty deep philosophical question contained in this conversation. Whenever we talk about the line between too much sex/profanity/violence and an unrealistic picture…
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The Hazards of Living In A Musical Family, and other Updates on my Babies
Alex After the LEGO movie a couple of years ago, Alex started singing “Everything is awesome” all.the.time. Woe was me. Then, knowing I loathed the song even more than I loathed the movie, he started teasing me by singing “Percy Jackson ro-ocks!” on the same tune. Then he got tired of Julianna’s obsession with Frozen,…
Read MoreBook Review: THE PERFECT SON
This year I’ve been volunteering with the Women’s Fiction Writers Association as a host for the “women’s fiction cafe,” which is done on Facebook. Instead of asking everyone to read a book in advance and discuss it, this is a chance for authors to stop in and give people a taste of the book, its…
Read MoreOn Any Given Sunday….
On any given Sunday, you might be sitting in the front row at Mass, trying to look like a respectable family who actually has any business giving a presentation on faithful parenting later that afternoon, when your three-year-old flings himself to the floor and wails. And when asked what’s wrong, his response might be: “I’m…
Read MoreOrdinary Love
I am hopeless romantic at heart–a sucker for a great kiss in a movie or a book, hopelessly sentimental about stories where new love is found alongside other adventures. But I’m also becoming ever more aware of how easy it is to take an oversimplified, overdramatized, and romanticized view of love and trying to measure…
Read MoreMe, My Boy, and the Words on the Page
I wrote my first story in the fourth grade, in the back seat of the “new bus” (at that time, my rural Catholic school had two bus routes; I was on number 2) with my second cousin. We knelt on the floor and used the vinyl seats as a desk. We were writing fan fiction.…
Read MoreFrozen Is Taking Over My Life
Frozen is taking over my life. Which I suppose should not be a surprise, considering that a) I have a daughter, and b) we just visited Disney World. We were kind of late to the Frozen party. We took the kids to see it in the theater and we thought it was a great movie.…
Read MoreMedical Drama and Other QTs
-1- It has been a week of medical drama. Julianna has had a cold for two weeks, which didn’t really process until her cough got worse Monday night. I don’t worry about her health very often anymore, but for some reason this time I worried. I took her to the doctor to make sure she…
Read MoreIn Which Writing and Reading Makes Me Appreciate My Marriage
I’ve been outlining a new novel lately–no, outlining is too glamorous a word. I’ve been brainstorming a character and a scenario to try to make them unique and interesting enough to be marketable. At the same time, I’ve been reading a lot: epic fantasy, nonfiction, women’s fiction. Reading is different now than it once was.…
Read MoreRandom Unconnected Thoughts For A Wednesday
1. If I ever write a memoir, I think I will call it Snuggles With Batman. 2. I have been running around town this week in the incessant rain-drizzle-downpour-deluge-drip with Michael wearing his Batman jacket. It’s supposed to be a 3T but, well, you can see how it fits. He calls the hood his “helmet.”…
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Kathleen M. Basi 