All Is Well, even if it doesn’t seem like it

Published on August 12, 2013December 29, 2015 by Barbara Samuel

It has been a traumatic period in the history of my city. Last Friday night, I watched the water pour through Manitou Springs, over the sidewalks and bridges, through the streets, through a café I love. The water is black and thick with debris and it’s wrecking things. Things I love. Things that feel like […]

Putting Summer Away

Published on October 5, 2012December 29, 2015 by Barbara Samuel

Before I forget: Amazon included In the Midnight Rain in an October special, so it’s .99 for the whole month. If you haven’t read it, now is a good time to grab it. Now…on to the blog…. It’s a slightly overcast morning, and promises to be truly cold and blustery and maybe even snowy tomorrow. […]

Colorado Springs On Fire

Published on June 27, 2012December 29, 2015 by Barbara Samuel

A mountain wildfire started in a canyon nearby the westside of Colorado Springs Saturday. I noticed the weird pink light in my house and snapped this picture from my office window, of the smoke plume rising above the city: Note the ridge at the base of the smoke column. That marks the canyon, the wild […]

Finished!

Published on May 22, 2010December 29, 2015 by Barbara Samuel

As I type this, a summery breeze is blowing through my office window. I can smell lilacs. The new book, HOW TO BAKE A PERFECT LIFE is finished at last…written, rewritten, given to agent and editor for thorough reads, then revised some more, and returned. It is on its way. I’ve seen a mock […]

Radio essay online

Published on June 11, 2009December 29, 2015 by Barbara Samuel

I taped another radio essay last week. It went live this morning and you can hear it here: http://krccnews.org/rccnews/citizen-report-joan-i/2009/06/11/6111

no matter what, you have to keep smiling

Published on February 11, 2009December 29, 2015 by Barbara Samuel

Saw these in a vintage shop on West Colorado Avenue last Saturday. Something about the colors, the ragged edge of that door, the cheery trio of smiles, the suitcase….captured me. I’m still thinking about this. Thus goes the writer brain. I have no idea why the girls are so VERY pleased with this, but they […]

Did Joan wash her hands at the same sink?

Published on February 2, 2009December 29, 2015 by Barbara Samuel

Joan Didion, the celebrated writer, went to Columbia Elementary School for awhile. The old building, made of red sandstone (as well as I can recollect), not the modern version that occupies the lot these days. I have been drunkenly reading her work, admiring the western cleanness, the spare and unsentimental way she captures the world, […]

News and reminders

Published on January 7, 2009December 29, 2015 by Barbara Samuel

The Lost Recipe for Happiness has gone back to print for a third time. Hooray! If you are in Pueblo, please come celebrate a launch party with me on Saturday, January 10, 2-4 pm at Barnes and Noble. (That’s this Saturday in case your brain is as foggy as mine after the holidays!) If you’re […]

Of taproots and home towns

Published on October 16, 2008December 29, 2015 by Barbara Samuel

Yesterday, weary of the restlessness that has followed me around for two days, I gave up the pretense of getting some pages one and drove to the downtown library. They had a particular book I wanted, but the destination was less the point than the escape. I took care of the little bits of work […]

Local pleasures

Published on August 18, 2008December 29, 2015 by Barbara Samuel

Yesterday, CR and I went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo to see the new Rocky Mountain Wild exhibit. This is a zoo worth visiting, truly–not large, but built along the mountain overlooking Colorado Springs, and the exhibits are more and more animal friendly. We were anxious to see the baby tiger that was partly nutured […]