Above is a picture I took yesterday of a little cluster of mushrooms I discovered on a pile of mulch in our yard.

There seem to be as many books about how to write as there are actual writers, yet Anne Lamott makes a solid if not altogether inspiring contribution to the collection.

Some of us love stories that leave us listening fearfully for shuffling footsteps in the dark, or movies that make us spray our popcorn about the room when the bogeyman leaps from the shadows, on reflection, we may wonder just what it is about scary stories that causes such fearful reactions.

Above: The Inn at Virginia Tech, in beautiful Blacksburg, Virginia.

The author of many books, including the acclaimed Rain of Gold, Victor Villasenor in Beyond Rain of Gold gives us a memoir chronicling his struggles to get his previous novels published as well as his growing awareness of the spirit realm.

Spring keeps pushing through, as shown by our camellia, but I hear winter is going to make another stand this weekend.