Marilyn's Musings

I enjoy speaking to writers' groups and there are several that I always hope will ask me back. Ridgewriters, a branch of the California Writers Club, is one of my favorite places to visit. The group is located in Ridgecrest which is way out on the high dessert with it's main claim to fame, the China Lake Naval Air Station. During the spring, the desert fills with colorful wildflowers--wildflowers you don't see in other places. When I contacted them about coming again to speak this year, they already had a speaker for March. As it turned out, that speaker was my good friend, Willma Gore. Willma taught me so much about writing during the years she lived in Porterville and we both attended the writers' critique group. Willma has a new book out, a memoir, and she planned a book tour in California beginning with the Ridgewriters group. Something happened though, and the dates got muddled. Ridgewriters expected her on March 2 and she thought the date was March 9. She made h...

We always go to Morro Bay or any event on the coast the day before because it's about a 3 1/2 hour drive. Could be shorter, but we have to make a couple of stops--has something to do with age. This time, hubby took me out to breakfast in Porterville. Then we headed to McDonald's and picked up a large cup of our favorite flavored iced-coffee, me vanilla, hubby caramel. We take the short cut which means we drive past Corcoran Prison (formidable) and then turn on a farm road until we get to Utica Ave., which is also a two-lane farm road with nothing much to see except flat farmlands until we reach Highway 5. We get on it for a short 2 miles to 41. (We often make a stop there before traveling on.) Then we go west on 41 to where it connects with the next highway that leads to the Paso Robles and Highway 101. The wildflowers were spectacular--bright orange poppies, blue lupine, wild mustard and the hills were green. We didn't stop, so my photo was taken through the car window--he...