Recently I received my membership card for the Pacific Northwest Writers Association. The next day I deleted my name from a listserve for the state public health association. One rite of passage followed another as I make a living as a nurse, writer, and artist – a balancing act I’ve been refining for nearly ten years.

The Sky Was A Brilliant Blue

By Alie Wiegersma Smaalders

Little Eva, her dark blond hair in pigtails, tagged along when her mother worked for the Sondervan family. The Sondervans had two maids and a cleaning lady, but Eva’s mother took care of special chores like washing the antique china or laundering the lace curtains. Everything in the house gleamed: the wooden floors, the tall windows, the copper kettles, the brass andirons, the silver candlesticks.

Blood and Iron (excerpt)

By Richard Carter

ACT 1, SCENE 1:
Letterbox reveals VICKY.
Vicky “January 1864. Dear Mama, War with Denmark is a mistake, caused by the uncontrolled power of an unprincipled man.”
Distant cannonfire. Boom
Vicky “June 1866. War with Austria is deliberatel concocted. Bismarck uses conflict to unite the German peoples.”