Barbara Samuel O'Neal is the author of more than thirty award-winning novels, including THE LOST RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS and

The Secret of Everything
A native of Colorado, Barbara loves teaching, travel, reading, writing, yoga, walking, food, cooking, photography and...okay, reality television.
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When I was a child, I loved going to summer camp. Girl Scout camp in canvas tents with wooden floors, or much more often church camp (probably because it was very inexpensive and my parents had four kids) in cabins housing 20 girls. It was the highlight of the summer—getting ready, gathering shampoo and [...]
I visited a pair of book clubs in Woodland Park on Tuesday night, and they gave me a gorgeous lavender plant. I had it in the sink to water and noticed the reflection. It looks as if there is another world inside that reflection, doesn’t it?
I have now packed the book off [...]
Almost finished with the new book. In the meantime, I thought you might like this picture. The Book Babes book club read The Lost Recipe for Happiness and sent me some pictures of their feast. Thanks, Diane! (I love the attention to detail, don’t you?)
I’d love to post more. Send me [...]
Dinner in Suburbia by Make Less Noise
When I was a child, we ate dinner together nearly every night. I did not necessarily love the whole ritual, especially when my mother made hamburger pie, covered with mashed potatoes, or when I was in trouble for one thing or another (which was a lot), but [...]
Today is Ash Wednesday, the day that marks the opening day of Lent, a period of atonement and abstention in the Christian, particularly Catholic, tradition. Although I no longer attend Catholic masses or actively practice many of the traditions, Lent still seems to me to be a powerful time to practice mindfulness, to notice what [...]
One of my great desires has always been to have a greenhouse. In a corner of my dining room is a small conservatory, a Victorian imitation, and within are a cyclamen and African violets. This morning, this cyclamen was blooming and I spent an hour admiring it, shooting the light on its petals, [...]
THE SECRET OF EVERYTHING is out today! To celebrate, a love song to breakfast.
PANCAKE KISSES, BACON HUGS
Why breakfast is the secret of everything
I suppose I should confess upfront that I am a morning person. I wake up cheery, chatty and at the very first fingers of sunlight creeping over the [...]
I remember standing at a publisher cocktail party years ago, talking with a publicist about electronic books, and she was shaking her head firmly, saying that e-books were still a non-issue. At the time, I was utterly hooked on Mario for GameBoy (the original, clunky, white one) and I made the case for a reader something like that unit, with a bigger screen. Something you could hold and transport easily. Everyone with me just shook their heads. If I stop and think about that fat, old GameBoy, I can guess this cocktail party was about a decade ago.
We’ve all seen the revolution coming for the past two years. Sony pushed things along, but Kindle set the game afire, and now Barnes and Noble has joined the market with their Nook. My oldest son, who is the kind of reader a writer dreams of, and was the kind of geeky kid who had to have every brand-new version of Zelda the day it came out, obviously has a Kindle. He’s on his second, actually, and it’s a lovely machine. I’ve played with the Sony reader, too, and I like it fine. Now there is Nook, which is pretty, pretty, and not available in any meaningful way until after Christmas. They all have their pros and cons, which you can read about in depth in this article from Wired.com. Since getting my iPhone a few months ago, I find I want that touch screen technology on everything, and at the moment, those e-readers are pricey.
Finally, this morning Christopher Robin sent me a link to an article firming up rumors that the Apple tablet is likely to be available in the spring. These snippets particularly caught my eye: Continue reading The tipping point for e-readers
My youngest son has a cat named Knucks, a long legged and elegant creature who must be coaxed and seduced into letting me play with him or pet him. He will play, he wants to play, and he especially wants me to rub his long black nose so he can purr almost silently, nose [...]
My old dog and her favorite thing…a fresh bone. [...]
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