Category Archives: Martha’s Vineyard

Benefit Art Show

After reading The Mud of the Place a friend told me, “I’ve never met any of these people, but I feel like I could run into any of them in the grocery store.” Maybe my favorite compliment ever, not least … Continue reading

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Tripod in the Backseat

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned as a fiction writer came from a theater director. “Make interesting choices,” he said. What’s an interesting choice? One that opens up possibilities. Watch a good improvisational theater troupe at work. Its … Continue reading

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Green Green

The unfolding of spring this year has been unusually entrancing, or maybe it’s just that I’ve been more-than-usually entranced. In winter, I packed my little Canon PowerShot on late-afternoon walks when the gathering clouds promised a vivid sunset. These days … Continue reading

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Reality

I still can’t wrap my head around the phrase “reality TV,” or the culture that came up with it, or the way it rolls trippingly off our tongues as if it makes sense. What will scholars from a different space-time … Continue reading

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Sign for Summer?

Maybe this sign could go right under the one in Woods Hole that says MARTHA’S VINEYARD NEXT LEFT? Sign courtesy of Shirley W. Mayhew

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Ghost Trees

I thought I’d missed the ghost trees this year. Their white flowers flicker off in the woods before the oaks start leafing out. They catch the corner of my eye as I drive down State Road. Spring is coming, they … Continue reading

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12 over 12 Windows

I’m a fairly rational, left-brain person, but some things reason just can’t explain and one of them is writing. Where do ideas come from? Where do fictional characters come from? How do you find out where they live? Most fiction … Continue reading

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Disaster Drill

Whenever a hurricane barrels up the East Coast or a blizzard bears down on New England, a few panicky friends halfway around the country are sure that Martha’s Vineyard is about to be flooded off the planet. True, on a … Continue reading

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April License Plate Report

Only two new sightings: Iowa and Kentucky. The YTD total is 32. How is this license plate map different from all previous license plate maps? Sure, it looks like all its predecessors, but it was scanned on my new scanner. … Continue reading

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A Counterclockwise Orange

I went down to the crossroad again last night. It’s not a crossroad anymore. “A Crossroad Orange” is now a Counterclockwise Orange. An almost-full moon was rising in the east. Vehicles were feeling their way around the circle. Two bicyclists, … Continue reading

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