Karen Douglass, Author

Karen Douglass, Author: Prose & Poetry

Category: Uncategorized

  • Noises in the Attic

    I am house sitting in Maine in a 200-year-old home. Early yesterday morning I heard a soft scratching in the dining room ceiling. Probably a mouse. I smack the wall near the spot and the noise stops. Then I hear a rhythmic rasping while I’m on the living room sofa reading Jane Smiley’s Duplicate Keys,…

  • Summer Reading As Real Reading

    For many people summer reading means cheap books marinated with sand and suntan lotion. It means forgettable, relaxation induced coma. Not so for me or some of my writing friends. Summer reading is more like the reading lists that teachers once sent home at the end of each school year. The difference is this: as…

  • Attendez Vous!

    Please, if you go to a poetry reading, pay attention to the poets. This is not difficult when the readers are well known and there is no open mic. However, the open mic can challenge your parents’ kindest intentions to teach you manners. I am put off and put out by self-centered attendees who blatantly show no interest…

  • The Wrong Story

    Where do stories come from? Anywhere people congregate and I can watch them. Here’s one: ASSUMPTION             A thin old man comes into my local coffee shop. He is bald, has a prominent bandage over his right eyebrow, thick glasses, a walker, a brace on his right leg. He wears a plaid shirt and dress…

  • Minion Rules for Writers

    The following guest blog comes from writer Fred G. Baker, author of Growing Up Wisconsin: Remembrances from The American Midwest. Thanks, Fred for the comic relief. Minion Critique By F.G. Baker Rod Sterling Narrates: In a book-publishing world controlled by one last corporation, it was necessary to create an elite cadre of editorial minions to…