This sounds like a great book! This is a re-post from the excellent blog, “Women Writers, Women’s Books.”

When I began writing In Praise of Difficult Women in 2014, I had no idea that it would publish during a time when women, by and large, had had enough. Writing and publishing books continues to be the occupation of the tortoise living in the era of hares on speed. Who knew time would be…

via In Praise of Difficult Women: Life Lessons from 29 Heroines Who Dared to Break the Rules — Women Writers, Women’s Books

I left my native land, Scotland, to live in an America that welcomed and supported people from all over the World. America is successful and powerful in part because of all the nationalities that came here, at great cost and personal sacrifice to work together for a better life. It is the land of immigrants. […]

via A Security Blanket we can all live with — studiotempera

It’s been a crazy few weeks! Whatever your political leanings, I think we can all agree that the United States is in a state of dramatic change, possibly upheaval. Change can be very scary, even positive changes like getting married or starting a new job. You can probably guess that my personal views on American politics are left-leaning, and so I’m finding the current change very unsettling! Here’s my plan, and maybe it will work for you whenever you are unhappy about something or someone…

I’ve decided to counter any negative feelings with a positive action. For example, when a certain politician votes for something I disagree with, despite my best efforts (marching, writing letters, phone calls…), I’m going to act in a way that helps people or the environment. I may:

• pick up litter in a public place and put it in the trash
• donate food to the local food pantry
• donate used books to the library book sale
• say something kind to cheer someone up
• plant a small tree in my yard

Can you think of any other positive ways to stage your own personal #resistance to what’s bothering you?

I really love pixton.com because for years I’ve dabbled with creating comic strips, only to get discouraged when my scribbly drawings were too messy. I couldn’t duplicate the characters well enough, and I’d soon run out of steam. But my friend, writer Lisa Logan, introduced me to pixton a couple of months ago, and I’ve been cartooning ever since!

Here’s my latest attempt at humor – in response to the U.S.A. election this week. I’ve been thinking that while words can be mightier than the sword — as we’ve seen on TV, they can mobilize huge numbers of people — they only have the power that we give them. Words alone, without the human emotion behind them, are powerless.

So, we can choose to be broken down by horrible words. Or we can render them meaningless by responding to them as though they were a toddler’s crayon scribbles or the boring ingredients on the back of a box of cereal.

Anyway, here’s my comic!