Fun feminist fiction
About me
I write fun feminist fiction. In my stories (like real life), women try to figure out the right thing to do and then do it. Also like real life, love and laughter show them they’re on the right track. Or maybe not the right track exactly, but they can have a good time even if…
The books
Green Spirits A Corsair’s Cove Companion short story It’s springtime in Corsair’s Cove, when trees bloom, tourists arrive and spirits get lively. But for Betsy Lund of Three Sheets Fabric Shop, this year it’s not a happy season. She misses her beloved business partner. Someone – or something– is using her quilting machines when she’s…
Of honeybees
The Ancient Greeks knew that the Muses, goddesses of music, science and poetry, dispatch honeybees to deliver stories and sweeten the lips of storytellers. In early February I visited Beehive Wool Shop to pick up a gift card. On my way in the door, a book caught my eye. It physically dragged me sideways to…
Hacking the revision
I aspire to create art, so I’m always looking for ways to better my craft. Some days, I feel like the best hack for revising my current story is to take a machete to it; most of the time, though, I know it’s more useful to review it with a fresh brain. In master classes at the Kauai Writers…
Me and the stories
My friend, the author Mary Ann Clarke Scott, interviewed me for our writing society’s newsletter earlier this fall. She has graciously said that I can reprint it here – thanks, Mary Ann! Mary Ann: I first met Rachel when I was just a visitor to one of VIRA’s workshops years ago in Nanaimo, but I…
Better living through stickers
Last winter, my friend and colleague Mallory proposed a brilliant replacement for those tired old New Year’s resolutions. “What if,” she said, “we created a Wellness Challenge? Anyone who wants to participate would choose an activity that will boost their own wellbeing. Maybe they’ll do this thing every day for a month, maybe once a…
The Touchstones
My younger cousin Tracey phoned recently to tell me about a plan she and five of her thirty-something single friends are hatching. It involves an RV trip to Alaska (where, apparently, men still outnumber women quite dramatically), a videocamera, and lots of sociologically significant interviews in bars. As she talked, I put on the kettle,…
Green Spirits
“I’m stuck,” Betsy told her daughter, Laurel, as she struggled to pull herself free of the hedge without dropping the carton of her mother-in-law’s dishes that were destined for Laurel’s new apartment. “Well, yeah.” Laurel held a black plastic bag in one hand while she hoisted the hatchback of her battered old Subaru with the other.…
Livening up book club
Here’s a nifty new activity to liven up book club! This summer, we Corsair’s Cove authors had a blast creating character cards for some of our recent books, and it struck me that it would be a fun thing for a book group to do. You can use sources like unsplash.com to find photos and…
Siena and Joe are finally here!
“A WARM SEPTEMBER breeze was picking up as Siena Panati balanced, barefoot, on the slackline she had slung a yard above the grassy central quad… “A vibration against her butt distracted her from the future—always her favorite place. Still balancing three feet above the lawn, she pulled the phone from the back pocket of her…
Parrot mystique
Long before Bonney showed up in Corsair’s Cove (we think), scarlet macaws appeared in what is now northwestern New Mexico. Their bones are telling an intriguing story. A dead parrot story is in last week’s edition of The Economist.
There’s a new story at the Cove!
The Pacific Northwest looks like a peaceful place. There are pretty towns like Corsair’s Cove and Victoria, beautiful parks, rugged green wilderness…. But once upon a time, in my grandmother’s lifetime, there was Prohibition and smuggling, rumrunners and corruption. My new story is set in that post-Great War era, when women had new legal rights…