I am thrilled on two counts: to learn that 1) Willa Cather, one of my all-time favorite authors will be honored by a statue of her to replace an older honoree in National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.; and 2) the sculptor chosen (from 70 national applicants) to create the bronze statue is a professor at my alma mater, Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska!

Littleton Alston, MFA, is the first African American sculptor to have a piece in the capitol’s statuary hall. His statue of Willa Cather and one of Ponca Chief Standing Bear will replace Nebraska’s current two statues in the collection of 100 from the 50 states.

I continue being thrilled: An anthology of flash fiction, “Itty Bitty Writing Space” launches on Labor Day. I am one of 104 authors who have written 104 stories in this collection—all are under one thousand words. Once you see the cute cover of this book, you might be tempted. Take a look—it’s on Amazon.

Another recent delight for me is a book store I came across in Seaside, Oregon. The open doorway invited me in to Beach Books, an independent book store on the corner of Broadway and Holladay Drive. The upscale look of two floors of neatly shelved books drew me inside. An oversized leather chair awaited me next to a table laid out with fresh new books, some with “recommend” tags on them.

My granddaughter Gwen went skipping off to the kids’ books section, as I settled down to enjoy the first chapter of “Turbulence” by David Szalay (recommended by Hillary.)

A delightful find on the comic page of the local newspaper showed people stampeding past a sign that read “Writers’ Retreat.” They were screaming, “Run! Run! Writing’s too hard!!” (“Pearls Before Swine,” August 28, 2019.)