Caroline Miller’s Write Away Blog
Good Housekeeping Gives Death No Stamp of Approval
Mar 08, 2018
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On the way to the gym at my retirement center, there’s a table with a small basket resting on it. Sometimes the basket is empty. Sometimes it isn’t When it isn’t, it’s full of condolence cards addressed to the family of a resident who has died. As yet I know so few peo
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School Daze
Mar 07, 2018
The other day a friend was gossiping about a party his daughter threw for a few friends after their final year of college. Much of the conversation was about how to pay off their student loans. One young woman volunteered she had no debt. Her grandparents had provide
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Taking Up Line Dancing
Mar 06, 2018
One of the adjustments I’ve had to make at the retirement center where I’ve moved is that I’m obliged to associate with people I don’t know but with whom I am now living cheek by jowl. There must be 300 residents in the complex and odds are that when I sit down to a mea
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To Fall In Love While Reading Dostoyevsky
Mar 05, 2018
One of the disadvantages of living in my new location is there are no used booksellers nearby. I’m beginning to miss the convenience of my snooty bookstore even though they treated my trade-ins as if they were used oil rags. At least I had access to cheaper books. And I miss
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The Child Is Father Of The Man
Mar 02, 2018
A friend who knew I was unacquainted with the work of children’s writer Shel Silverstein gave me one of his books recently: “The Giving Tree.” Amused I breezed through it, even read it aloud as if to entertain the child inside me. But when I closed the cover, I
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Random Acts Of Niceness
Mar 01, 2018
“Random Acts Of Niceness,” by Taffy Brodesser-Akner surprised me. (Ladies Homes Journal, June 2014 pgs. 21 23.) I wasn’t prepared for her insights about “niceness” which were deeper than one might expect from a homemaking magazine. The story began with the author
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No Failsafe Against Human Nature
Feb 26, 2018
Several years ago, a woman, who would later become the first female governor of Oregon, snapped at my observation that politics would be better off without political parties. People should vote directly for candidates without needing approval from an “old boy” network, I said.
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Feast Or Famine
Feb 22, 2018
Never ask a carnivore chef if the restaurant can accommodate a vegetarian His or her idea of feeding one is tantamount to handing the guest a head of lettuce and saying, “My work here is done.” The chef at my retirement center falls into this category. He’s nev
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The Butterfly Effect
Feb 20, 2018
We’ve all heard about the butterfly effect: a butterfly flaps its wings in New Mexico and causes a hurricane in China. The expression seems mystical, like a Japanese koan, but it’s simply a matter of cause and effect. One of the best examples starts with a dress. In the 18th c
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Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.
Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015
Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens. She also published the story Gustav Pavel, a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.
Caroline has published five novels
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