War and Heroes

Memorial Day – still known as Decoration Day through my high school years – is a sobering day, though we celebrate it with barbecues and pool parties. This year, Facebook posted soldiers’ pics and their lives’ summaries (most of which were quite short summaries) throughout the weekend so that when you least expected it, up popped the photo of a …

Jane Addams

On this date – May 21 – 90 years ago, American woman Jane Addams died. She struggled with spiritual issues, perhaps because of the suffering that she saw among Chicago’s immigrants in the late 19th century, but her remarkable contribution is that she tried to DO something about it by establishing the settlement house known as Hull-House (hyphenated at that …

Unexpected Pleasure

I keep an annual reading journal in which I list every book I’ve read (or tried to read) by month, adding brief personal comments about it. The joy of the last few days was that I read 2 books, 1 that I really enjoyed and the other that I loved. (I have levels, you see … from “couldn’t finish” to …

Facebook Ad

I have an author’s Facebook page – in case you were wondering – and you can find it by putting ‘Karen J. Hasley, Author’ in the Facebook search bar. Sadly, I haven’t done one stinking thing with that page since 2022. Until today, that is, May 14, 2025, when I used it to create a Facebook ad introducing me and …

Reading Up a Storm

I’ve been reading all summer, one book after another, taking the recommendations of strangers and suggestions from publishers. Yesterday I picked up ten ‘holds’ from the library and once home, going through the stack was like opening a box of chocolates. It’s the trade off for not writing a single creative word for months, I guess. My top three books …

Fresh New Postings

Hi, all! While doing a little maintenance, we have chosen to start fresh on the blog. There may be a time when we update the archive, but the previous posts are no longer live. Happy future reading!