Deborah Adams's Blog

Last year Julie and I glommed onto ‘months’ in our desperate attempt to find a year’s worth of b.read.crumbs themes. “Just whatever the month suggests,” we agreed. I had a vague idea about monthly prompts, starting new (‘cause, y’know, January….) I came into the world 70 years ago this month, so I was mostly thinking about cake and ice cream. And so many other possibilities for post topics that I didn’t get specific about, but no worries because ideas are everywhere.

I have a folde...

Our go-to source for inspiration is always folklore and especially fairy tales. Fairy tales are good bones for a story, what you use to build structure, and you can do so much with those bones! If we’re feeling stuck, or longing for inspiration, one of our favorite things to do is try to retell one of these old stories in a completely new way. As fairy-tale scholars, we’ve seen a lot of different fairy-tale retellings over the years, s...

Reading other poets has been fundamental to my development as a writer, and to my growth as a person, because reading other poets has made my world bigger, richer, and more connected.

I want to be clear, I’m not talking about reading only famous or trending poets—let’s face it, a lot of us aren’t well-known and never will be. But a lot of lesser-known poets are publishing fabulous work. I believe it’s a gift to give our attention to the...

I wrote a few micro-stories about Small Town Witch, and then I wrote a few more. Now there’s a chapbook called Small Town Witch. Details below.

Some of the stories are making their debut in the book; some have been published in various journals. You can sample Small Town Witch stories on the Read page (under Fiction).

The magnificent cover art is by Shuly Xóchitl Cawood, and she absolutely nailed the essence of STW. Her art is as graceful and unique and moving as her writing.

If you read and enjoy...

OM

(erasure poem)

wonderful words were spoken

and turned the air back to us

OM

now listen to me

hear, hear!

the best and the noblest being is worthy

OM

life is long so be happy, do good

be content with this blessed day

OM

pride is an amusement

familiar to ignorance

OM

the language of the good and the fair

is gold to the soul

imagine we are all together, all alike

OM

Derived from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Source Text:

Professor has brought some wonderful news with him, in which he says you are concerned; ...

I’m going to share a couple of answers to the title question, one poetic and one straight-forward. Truthfully, I’d love it if some of you would just write my bio for me and send it along, but for now….

A golden shovel borrows a line from the existing poem and uses each word from that line as the last word of each line in a new poem.

I begin with this golden shovel. I’ve made the end words bold in case you’re reading this on a device with a narrow screen.

after “How Could I Live On” ~...

Coming to you a week early, because I know most of you will be too holiday-crazed to read next week.

I am both published and not published.

Two pieces of writing were accepted by journals a while back. I’d love to have my work appear in either of them, so getting picked up by both within the same week thrilled me.

The promised publication dates came and went without a new issue from either journal. Time continued to pass. I finally contacted the editors and learned that one journal was delayed beca...

BACKWARD is my favorite of the erasure poems I’ve done. I’ve included an image of the page I took it from, but I’ve also put just the text at the bottom. The poem, as seen in the page image, can be read in both directions, possibly more than both directions. The original text is not in the public domain, so this erasure isn’t a fit for literary journals. I’m posting it here because I think it’s fun and because I don’t believe for a minute that the authors will sue me. Or if they do, the publici...

I can’t thank you enough for showing your support for my newsletter. You’re wonderful, and next time I update my will, I’ll include you in it. If there’s room.

Meanwhile, I hope you’ll exchange your paid subscription to this newsletter for a free one. You might donate the same amount to a worthy charity or put it toward fighting fascism.

I’ve included A…

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In case you missed it, here’s Julie Herman’s latest b.read.crumbs post:

Deb and I have done four chapters of b.read.crumbs thus far. One year with guests, one year with tarot, one year with terribly written Fairy Tales, and one year with prompts. We are very loose when it comes to following our own rules, so we’re thinking of an overall prompt that may fit 2026. We each do a post a month, and crosspost the other’s thoughts. I was originally supposed to do additional postings on my personal blog, ...