Posts by Alice Carlton

Now that I’m 75, the reality of my mortality looms larger than ever before. Every day people my age and younger are dying. I will someday join them. Plans must be made. On an unseasonably warm January day, we drove out to the Bluestem Conservation Cemetery to pick out my plot for a future green…

When my father died in 1996, I acquired all sorts of his belongings. Many I didn’t know what to do with and tucked away in closets and on shelves. At that time I was newly separated and headed for divorce. My main concern was reorganizing my life to take care of my eight year old…

It starts with the search for an idea. Perhaps a question: What if…? I walk around for days or weeks, staring off into space, plucking and discarding topics and thoughts and ideas. Something appeals to me. No, it will never work. Maybe I find a general area of interest and a subset that I let…

I was attending the North Carolina Writers’ Network spring conference, held virtually, and this question came to me during the “picnic lunch” where we were divided into break out rooms. I had just met the woman who asked this question. I was not prepared for this question and felt at a loss. It has stuck…