Shows
Mary's 'Maginings and MusingsMy Plea for Young'uns to Adopt an AncientAnother WFAE Radio Commentary.2023-07-3103 minMary's 'Maginings and MusingsSome of the Perils of FacebookAnother WFAE Radio Commentary.2023-07-3103 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#20 Catching Fireflies in the BarThe piece you’re about to hear won first place in the 2022 Ruth Moose Flash Fiction Contest. The way this story came to be crystallizes why I love to write. Most everyone has enjoyed the sport of firefly catching, and that’s how the story started – reflecting on wonderful summer nights in my backyard. Setting the story in a bar with flashing lights added another layer. This flash piece (that’s funny…it’s actually a piece of flash fiction) came from who-knows-where as I composed and worked on it over, it felt like, several years. This is the fairy dust I...2023-03-3107 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#19 The Medicine ManThe story that follows, "The Medicine Man", was written by my mother. She died in 2008 at the age of 93. She would be so happy that this semi-autobiographical story, based on a childhood experience, is finally seeing the light of day. Esther was a treasure who inhabited the world with immense grace.
Voice actor, Kathy Poelker, recorded this tale.
I hope you enjoy my mother’s story as much as I do.2023-03-0511 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#18 Gone AstrayThe following piece won First Place in the 2015 Ruth Moose Flash Fiction Contest. The judge of the contest, Mary Curtis, said this about Gone Astray:
"The simplicity of the story is effective, and deceptive. Through the protagonist, you learn the whole story and get a sense of an entire cast of characters. The writer conveys a roller coaster of emotions – humor, sadness, ruefulness, self pity, empathy – and reveals a sophisticated touch. In a few words, the author created a complicated character – not perfect, but interesting. The reader wants to know what happens next.”
This flash piece, e...2023-02-0103 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#17 Not Dead Yet - Mary's EulogyAwhile ago I wrote a little something to be read at my funeral, or whatever will take place after my passing. And now that our cremations have been paid for, I might as well also record my eulogy. Who knows when that grim reaper with his trusty scythe might be comin’ ‘round the corner?
Note the music source: "Promises to Keep" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/2022-11-1805 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#16 Awaiting the Christmas PhotoThis little conjuring is based on a Writer’s Digest photo prompt of a fellow standing in front of a Christmas tree. It is what I imagined the poor sod might be going through. The very talented voice actor, Neil Boone, brought the character to life.2022-10-2504 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#15 -- CrematonBefore these recordings, I used to read some of my pieces to friends…sort of like a live podcast at the dinner table. The one that follows, about us contracting with a cremation service, prompted our friends, Terry and John to do the same. They gave this cremation service as a present to each other last year for Christmas.
John died last week. Terry only needed to make one phone call and everything was handled. She was very grateful for their help. So, even though this true recounting of our experience includes a bit of snarky Mary, it...2022-10-2207 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#14 Getting Old is Hell - Musing on NPRThe following is my second essay--or musing--that aired on Charlotte’s local NPR station.
This commentary was a response to receiving a direct mail solicitation about a motorized wheelchair. Yeah, I’m aging, but nowhere near needing that device!
This musing is entitled “Getting Old is Hell”.2022-08-2203 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#13 Mister and MiscommunicationThis conjuring was inspired by a “who’s on first”-type conversations I had with my older brother, Dan. You may know a couple named Myrna and Guy, but they are not the people in this fictitious tale. I just happen to like the names. This tiny story, recorded by the talented Neil Boone, I call “Mister and Miscommunication “.2022-08-0403 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#12 -- Saving Francis Ford Coppola, A MusingOn Bois Blanc Island in Michigan, the place we visit in the summer, there are no grocery stores. So, supplies hauled over on the one-and-only ferry are a precious commodity, especially alcohol. This musing, my recollection of a real event, is about the tragic loss of a bottle of gold-labeled Francis Ford Coppola Cabernet while enroute to the island.2022-06-1805 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#11 The Timekeeper - Ekphrastic Writing, Turned Upside DownThe Mooresville Art Gallery in North Carolina turned the idea of Ekphrastic Writing on its head. Usually ekphrastic writing is based on a work of art, a la the book The Girl with the Pearl Earring, written by Tracy Chevalier, which is based on the subject in a painting by Vermeer. However, Mooresville challenged artists to do the opposite – create a work of art based on a piece of writing. My poem, about a clock that resides in our Bois Blanc Island, Michigan cottage inspired two artists, Sue Edwards and Sandy Eaton, to create sculptures.
The poem:...2022-06-1702 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#10 The Weaning PartyHe was almost four years old for god’s sake. A bit late for a weaning party, I thought. But, Julie is an earthy, touchy feely mother – in fact president of the La Leche League -- so who was I to tell her when to quit breast feeding?2022-05-2303 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#9 Snakes on DemandIn 2014 the alternative press newspaper, Creative Loafing, ran a short story contest. The prompt was “I forgot to pay my heat bill”. That was the genesis for this tale. It didn’t win then. It needed lots of work.
Over the past 8 years, I edited and edited the story, one adjustment was to make it “media res”….so when the story opens it’s Ed discovering that the snakes he was planning to sell to regional churches had frozen because someone didn’t pay the heat bill.
I had a brother who was a naturalist and was smitten...2022-05-2022 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#8 The poem: When the River Went All Wrong, and the Resulting Song: Belmont FordThis poem and the song that follows are about the train that washed off a railroad bridge in Belmont, North Carolina – the result of a catastrophic flood that happened over one hundred years ago – on July 17, 1916.
I heard about this devastating flood and the train plunging into the river and thought it might make a good song. So I decided to learn all about it. I nearly went blind reading the 100 year old Charlotte Observers in the Carolina Room at the public library. The bottom right hand corner of the pages had disintegrated before being preserved on micr...2022-05-1408 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#7 An Ekphrastic Short Story: Rendezvous At NeonAn ekphrastic poem is a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning.2022-05-1306 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#6 Cats, Cats, Cats -- an original song by daughter, CailinFor a number of years, our daughter, Cailin, came up with a daily email treat through the month of December. It was a beautiful, and thoughtful online Advent Calendar. This posting, the last one in the year 2019, was about a cassette tape I’d unearthed. She had recorded many ditties on the tape (which was intended for entertainment on the road) but this particular song is her original work, and about cats, so is a winner. It’s also a little clunky -- a seven year old was doing the engineering after all -- but it’s positively darling. (And he...2022-05-0904 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#5 Life's Toys - A Commentary on WFAE, Charlotte's NPR StationIn 2007 and before, WFAE invited writers in the community to submit opinion essays that, if accepted, the submitter would read on the air. I was very lucky to have had four of those accepted and air. These have since been broomed from the WFAE archives, but luckily my son, Brian, helped me save them on Soundcloud before they disappeared into thin air.
This first one, which I call Life’s Toys, was written while I was on a writer’s retreat at Sunset Beach with Maureen Ryan Griffin. She still offers these retreats, so if you’re intere...2022-05-0803 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#4 The short story: FlimsyOne of my favorite resources for writing prompts is the Writer’s Digest’s “Your Story” contest. Every other issue, the magazine displays a photo prompt, or sometimes a phrase, and asks for stories based on the prompt, 650 words or less. There is no entry fee, and the deadline is long allowing plenty of time for the seed to germinate, and grow into a fully formed story.
This story is based on this Writer’s Digest provided photo of balloons packed into a Volkswagen, coupled with my friend Wendy’s mother’s input. She lives in this fictional reti...2022-05-0605 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#3 My mother, Esther Struble's poem: LANDLOCKEDAfter my mother, Esther Struble, retired from a career in health care, she took up the hobby of writing. There certainly is some apple and tree stuff going on with this family. The photo you see of her was snapped at a book release party my brother arranged for her in Austin, Texas. I’m sure her holding the big fat book in the picture was their idea of a joke. Her book was only 54 pages long.
Because she never was published, beyond this self-printed collection of her stories and poems, I’d like to include some of h...2022-05-0602 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#2 The short short story: SLITHERThis story, entitled Slither, is the first ‘magining I’m recording for this podcast. There’s a reason for that.
I wrote it in a class I took with Maureen Ryan Griffin in 2007. It was one of my earliest conjuring.
When Ruth Moose, a professor of Creative Writing at UNC Chapel Hill, sponsored a Flash Fiction Contest through the Charlotte Writer’s Club in 2012, I shaped and edited Slither and submitted it.
Ruth judged my story to be the first place winner. This contest spurred me to continue dreaming and writing and since then I’v...2022-05-0404 min
Mary's 'Maginings and Musings#1 Introduction to Mary's 'Maginings and Musings90 percent of my writing is drivel—this putting pen to paper is the calisthenics I’ve been doing since I discovered the sport about 20 years ago. But here's the thing, I think some of it is really good.
If I feel something when I write, isn’t there a chance someone else will too? Frost famously said no tears for the writer, no tears for the reader. But, the truth is no writing has universal appeal.
My ‘maginings are stories I’ve conjured up from whole cloth…or from fairy dust. I don’t actually know where the...2022-05-0205 min