Writers Resources Cafe Magazine
Read Mo's holiday classic story of "How Mrs. Santa Saves Christmas (and how a dog named Tundra saves Mrs. Santa).
Mrs. Santa, who does not like heights,must make a heroic decision one Christmas Eve. Quite fortunately, her lead sled dog decides to accompany her.
Romantic love
Do not speak to me of love,
That fairy tale, breeding
procreation and pain.
The very word makes
My organs and cells and sinews
Clench, anticipating the blow.
Stomach unable to accept
Food. Heartbeat mad.
Mind a spiral downward.
Do not speak to me of love.
Love is unkind. Love is cruel.
Love is not gentle.
Instead, come sit with me
By the fire and let us
Talk of this and that.
I shall pour for us
Cups of soup,
Clear strong broth.
And we shall speak
Of things, without reserve,
And with high regard.
And I shall forget
Awhile that this broth
Is made from heartsblood.
~ Mo/November, 2016
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Welcome to our cafe and magazine
This is a non-commercial site dedicated to writing of all genres and to the pleasures of reading. Please explore our more than 260 pages of writing.
When we began this site several years ago, we had only a few dozen or so readers. Now we have readers from around the globe and commonly, more than 10,000 pages read per month.
The origin of our readership changes from month to month. Keep reading. Keep writing!
~ Kathy, Mo and Patty
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Kathy reads
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
from the perspective of a writer
who has had to "kill her babies."
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Hail the sun dipping
below Mother Lake; come back
early tomorrow.
~~~~ Photo by EyeSeeLight
Keep On
Keep singing that song,
The one about beauty, hope
And love. Just keep on.
Visit the Daily Haiku archives
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Read the rest of Goodbye Cancer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By Mo Conlan
There was a little girl named Margretta Todd who loved the color red. The bedspread in the bedroom she shared with her sisters -- Loretta, Henrietta and Tootsie -- was red.
The ball she tossed with her brothers -- Horace, Morris and Boris -- was red.
Most of all, though, Margretta loved red shoes. She wore red play shoes, red boots when it rained, red clogs in the garden. She wore sturdy red work shoes when she helped out at the family's business, the Todd Family Zoo. Margretta even had a pair of shiny red patent shoes for dress-up…. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here is an excerpt from, Babies' Breath, Kathy's award-winning short story contained in her anthology of the same title: Kathy answers questions Kathy's five-star-reviewed Goodbye Cancer
Patty describes her journey through Cancer-Land
- The only thing I am not behind on is haircuts.
- The only reading materials in the surgeon’s office are cancer magazines and a coffee table book on Spring Grove Cemetery...
Red Shoes ~ A story for middle children and for those who love the color red
Red Shoes~ read the rest
"My heart burned as red-hot as the ancient round stones edging the fire-pit and my tears sizzled and steamed like spit when they fell into the flame." Read on here.
for blogger, Betty Meyette,
about Babies' Breath
at this link: Meyette's Musings
short story collection
can be purchased by clicking :
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How I Became a Redhead ~ Short fiction by Mo
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Perhaps you've wondered about the writers here. If that is so, here is a mini-autobiography of each of us. The three of us agree that writing about ourselves is the most difficult task we've entertained.
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A report
from the real world by Patty
A guide to The Office
More wit and commentary
Inside Patty's writing log
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The latest Ace Spade, PI, story from Mo
Has Ace Spade Found His Olive?
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New book:
"Tai Chi Therapy: The Science of Metarobics" ~
Read the preface
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Visit Mo's Art Gallery
Vase with gold and red
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Visit The Cafe Blog.
and subscribe to the Cafe.
To discover what makes us tick,
click on Biographies
Mo, Patty and Kathy
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Note to visitors:
The stories, poetry, essays and artwork
on this site are copyrighted,
owned by the writers and artists.
No commercial use of them by others is permitted.
We Interrupt This Important Message to Bring You a Football Game
By Dottie Rockel
Good afternoon sports fans. This is Bruce Barker of CVG-TV here with my colleagues Guy Decker and Travis Hatch to bring you this exciting championship football game between the Middletown Maulers and the Oxford Otters. Here we are at PNC stadium in Mason, Ohio with the Perkins Pancake play by play of the game.
These two teams have fought hard to be here today but after an exciting finish in the final seconds of last week’s game the Maulers showed us what they were made of when they overcame the Trenton Tigers in the last seconds of the game to win it all.
Billy Axton of THE Toledo University inched the ball across the Garmin goal line just at the final Budweiser buzzer to eke out a Delta Airlines victory for the Maulers. By getting into the Exxon end zone with just two seconds left on the Timex clock the Maulers won the Subway semifinals snatching a Victoria’s Secret victory from the jaws of a Daimler-Chrysler defeat.
Our game today is about to get underway. The Otters have won the Tractor Supply coin toss and have chosen to receive the King’s Auto Mall kickoff from the Maulers. The receiver will await the kickoff in the Best Buy backfield. The kick is up and Randy Reno of THE Brestler School of Design has signaled for a Red Roof Inn fair catch. Oops. The ball has gone over his head and bounces into the KFC end zone. It will be brought out to the Subway twenty yard line for a Target touchback.
The teams are lined up on the Subway twenty. There’s the Century 21 snap but wait a minute. The ref blows his Wonder Bra whistle. The offensive tackle Bart Braxton of THE Wallace College was lined up offsides. That will be a Ford five yard penalty taking the Otters back to their Flomax fifteen yard line.
The teams are lined up on the Flomax fifteen. The quarterback Mitch Miller of THE Carson University hands the ball off to his running back Rico Suave of THE Mexico City School of Science who breaks a tackle advancing for seven yards to the Ralston Purina twenty two. He was tackled by Sam Smothers of THE Central State College.
It’s third and eight. They’re lined up again at the Ralston Purina twenty two. There’s the Sysco snap to Miller. He looks like he’s handing the ball off to his running back but it’s an AFLAC fake. Miller throws the Heart Guard Hail Mary pass to his tight end Dennis Draper of THE Akron State College. He takes it down the Centrum sidelines into the All State end zone and puts six points up on the Safeco scoreboard.
There’s the Geico point after touchdown.
We will take a short break to bring you some important messages from six or seven of our sponsors but don’t go away. You won’t want to miss the Auto Zone first half action or our exciting Hawaiian Punch halftime show.
Dottie Rockel is a humorist, a dog lover and expert on therapy dogs and many other things.
