JACKIE

    
     I'd like to introduce you to my toy poodle. Gone a number of years now, she still lives on in my heart and was the focus along with her friends--three other toy poodles, a sheltie and a Pekingese--of one of the first articles I wrote that was published. She was also the inspiration for  a short story that won a prize in an AKC fiction contest.
     Jackie and her friends joined us while we were touring with the national company of a Broadway musical. Part of the tour was what is called a "Bus and Truck," and when we descended the steps of our bus for a rest break and walks for the dogs, people would think we were a dog show. Jackie could easily jump from the left side of the bus to the right--if a ballet were ever written for dogs she would have been a star.
     She didn't like dog coats or snow boots (even thought the boots I bought for her came from Bloomingdales) and once she hid the coats so well I coouldn't find them for a week. She couldn't stand bows put on her ears by the groomer and insisted they be removed but she didn't mind the attention paid to her by handsome dogs--she did have good taste in men.
     Her favorite people foods after steak and ice cream were baked beans and rice pudding. Though shy, she had a big bark--taught to her by my husband--and if the doorbell rang employed it. When I looked through the peephole, the vendor would be standing far back. He had no way of knowing that Jackie was now hiding under the bed--although she always left room for me. I miss her.

Bests,

Elise

YOU CAME TO ME FROM OUT OF NOWHERE

Photo by Ed Isaacs Dreamstime.com     
     Sometimes I awake in the middle of the night with an idea for a short story, a novel or an article that cries out to be written. I reach for the pad and pen on my bedside table while trying not to wake my husband and--in the dark--scrawl down the idea in what will turn out to be partially unreadable. In the  morning, it will either be torn out off the pad or, if the thought holds up in the light of day, carried to my computer
     Then, sometimes, an image of the school bully may appear--and she's perfect for the antagonist in a novel I'm planning to write. A photograph of my grandmother inspires the elderly lady in a short story. Art and sculpture in theMetropolitan Museum of Art lets me travel back in time to another place and other beliefs. Travel frees my mind and opens it to the world's pleasures and pain. Discussions and disagreements make me think and sometimes change and broaden my opinions and misconceptions leading to another piece, another story, another novel.

Where do you discover and mine your ideas?

Bests,
Elise