by | March 31, 2026 · 3:56 pm

#TankaTuesday Poetry Challenge No. 58, Fools Abound! 03/31/26

Yvette Calleiro has come up with the topic for this week’s Tanka Tuesday: Fools Abound! Of course, she’s playing off April 1, April Fool’s Day, a day of sanctioned pranks.

Only I’ve never liked pranks. I don’t like to see people made fools of. In fact, the only place I like a fool is in a Shakespeare play, such as the fool in King Lear. That jester is a smart man.

So I thought I’d write a syllabic poem–senryu today–highlighting the toxicity of foolishness.

And I’m giving my poem a title although that isn’t usual with a senryu.

 

Fool’s Parsley

 

the name seems a prank

but one bite can mean your death

even its touch hurts

 

By H. Zell – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8951747

Although this poisonous weed comes from other continents, it has made its way to North American and, yes, even to Arizona.

Apparently you don’t always die from eating the weed. Sometimes you just get sick. However, if you die from it you die by SUFFOCATION.

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PURCHASE SCRAP: SALVAGING A FAMILY

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Filed under #TankaTuesday, Flora, Garden, and Landscape, Poetry, Syllabic Poetry

by | March 30, 2026 · 6:37 am

Blog Tour for SCRAP is Over at Miriam Hurdle’s Blog!

Put on your cap to follow Scrap (I can’t help myself with these Scrap rhymes) over to Miriam Hurdle’s The Showers of Blessings blog! A big thank you to my sweet friend Miriam for hosting Scrap and me.

I worked on the memoir-in-flash for 18 years, and over that time I did end up with at least two different complete traditional versions. Then I decided to write Scrap in hybrid, using a lot of flash nonfiction, as well as poems, essay, etc.  Of course that means that there are stories that did not make it into the book. Miriam is sharing one today!

MIRIAM’S BLOG

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I’m looking forward to the blog tours for my new book Scrap: Salvaging a Family, published by ELJ Editions.

First up are friend blogs!

Joy Neal Kidney, March 21, book review

Liz Gauffreau, March 23, book review

Marie Ann Bailey, March 24, book review

John W. Howell, March 25, book excerpt

Miriam Hurdle, March 30, companion story to Scrap

Going to be on Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord on May 4!

Then there is an April and May tour through Poetic Book Tours, schedule in link.

POETIC BOOK TOUR FOR SCRAP

Click on the book image to order at Amazon.

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by | March 25, 2026 · 4:00 am

Tap Your Feet Over to SCRAP at John Howell’s Fiction Favorites!

Tap your feet over to see Scrap on John W. Howell’s blog

John W. Howell’s Fiction Favorites

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I’m looking forward to the blog tours for my new book Scrap: Salvaging a Family, published by ELJ Editions.

First up are friend blogs!

Joy Neal Kidney, March 21, book review

Liz Gauffreau, March 23, book review

Marie Ann Bailey, March 24, book review

John W. Howell, March 25, book excerpt

Miriam Hurdle, March 30, companion story to Scrap

Going to be on Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord on May 4!

Then there is an April and May tour through Poetic Book Tours, schedule in link.

POETIC BOOK TOUR FOR SCRAP

Click on the book image to order at Amazon.

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by | March 24, 2026 · 6:15 am

Blog Tour for Scrap: Salvaging a Family: Check Out Marie Bailey’s Review!

I don’t think anybody has read as many versions of Scrap: Salvaging a Family as my friend Marie Ann Bailey. Flap your wings (you see what I’m doing there, right? flap/scrap) over to her blog to read her review of the finished product!

MARIE’S REVIEW OF SCRAP

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BLOG TOURS FOR SCRAP:

First up are friend blogs!

Joy Neal Kidney, March 21, book review

Liz Gauffreau, March 23, book review

Marie Ann Bailey, March 24, book review

John W. Howell, March 25, book excerpt

Miriam Hurdle, March 30, companion story to Scrap

 

Then there is an April and May tour through Poetic Book Tours, schedule in link.

POETIC BOOK TOUR FOR SCRAP

 

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by | March 23, 2026 · 5:00 am

SCRAP Blog Tour is Happening at Writer Elizabeth Gauffreau’s Blog

Tap into Scrap at Elizabeth (Liz) Gauffreau’s blog! Check out her review of Scrap: Salvaging a Family.

Liz’s Review of SCRAP

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BLOG TOURS FOR SCRAP:

First up are friend blogs!

Joy Neal Kidney, March 21, book review

Liz Gauffreau, March 23, book review

Marie Ann Bailey, March 24, book review

John W. Howell, March 25, book excerpt

Miriam Hurdle, March 30, companion story to Scrap

 

Then there is an April and May tour through Poetic Book Tours, schedule in link.

POETIC BOOK TOUR FOR SCRAP

 

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by | March 21, 2026 · 9:39 am

The Blog Tours for Scrap Begins with Joy Neal Kidney’s Delightful Blog

Thank you so much, Joy!!!

JOY NEAL KIDNEY

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I’m looking forward to the blog tours for my new book Scrap: Salvaging a Family, published by ELJ Editions.

First up are friend blogs!

Joy Neal Kidney, March 21, book review

Liz Gauffreau, March 23, book review

Marie Ann Bailey, March 24, book review

John W. Howell, March 25, book excerpt

Miriam Hurdle, March 30, companion story to Scrap

 

Then there is an April and May tour through Poetic Book Tours, schedule in link.

POETIC BOOK TOUR FOR SCRAP

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Filed under #ScrapSalvagingFamily, Book Review, ELJ Editions, Family, Family history, Flash Nonfiction, flash nonfiction, hybrid memoir, Memoir, Nonfiction, SCRAP: SALVAGING A FAMILY, Scrap:Salvaging a Family

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by | March 20, 2026 · 6:00 am

TODAY IS THE DAY: OFFICIAL RELEASE OF SCRAP: SALVAGING A FAMILY

In addition to it being the Happy Scrappy Scrap Release Day, the book’s STARRED!!!!!!!!!! Kirkus review came in last night. What a surprise that is. Only 10% of Kirkus reviews are starred. (I had no idea, but I looked it up).

“…a powerful, painful family saga that slowly gives way to hard-won understanding. A richly detailed, harrowing account of household mayhem and the struggle to forgive.”
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

AVAILABLE AT AMAZON

Almost twelve years ago, I was blogging about the various patterns that are found in Scrap. And the book already had that title then! I can hardly believe it, although the book did not look anything like it does today. Anyway, one of my posts was about the motif of scrap. Here is the most important part of that post:

Today is one of my non-emotion patterns: SCRAP, which happens to be the title of my book. The motif of scrap(s), trash, theft, salvaging, and re-use runs through many scenes. Scrap represents destruction and chaos until scraps can be salvaged and re-used.

On the more positive side of trash and scrap, when I was a kid, my father sold teepee burners to dumps and then started his own garbage business. When Dad had his own business, he used to find all kinds of usable trash. He brought me boxes of books and costume trunk clothes that had been thrown into dumpsters.

When my grandmother entered the nursing home, she left behind with my parents a Victorian crazy quilt, made of irregular scraps. I think of it as a guiding image for my book.

Like most crazy quilts [of that era], the scraps are velvet and satin and embroidered with designs. Many of the designs are floral.

My father uses scrap metal to make art:

The metal flowers are my favorites.

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The quilt can be found in Scrap: Salvaging a Family, as can my father’s metal creations.

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by | March 16, 2026 · 6:00 am

Update on Mom

At the end of January I wrote about my mom going into Memory Care. Well, “funny”story.

A few weeks ago I got a call from the director of her community. She said she had visited my mom and talked with her at some length. Then she dropped the flower bomb, meaning the good news! “Your mom doesn’t belong in Memory Care.”

Turns out I was right about the situation with her. I had told the independent living staff that I agreed she had hallucinations and couldn’t remember times and dates, but that she knew all of the family still, knew everything about us, and the same with friends.

The director noticed the same thing, saying, “She knows everyone’s name.”

So they moved her into the regular assisted living, where she can eat meals with friends and go out of the building whenever she pleases. She’s happy because she has the care she needs (reminding her about appointments, for instance, and three meals a day), but has some freedom. She didn’t fit in Memory Care. It’s wonderful to fit in, especially when you have a lot of aging issues.

About the hallucinations. Apparently they stopped once she moved out of independent living. Nobody knows why, but I suspect she was lonely and scared living by herself in an isolated area of the building and maybe this triggered them.

ADOBE STOCK PHOTO

I’ve been participating in Kathy Fish’s Immersion. It’s free for those who subscribe to her substack. Her substack is DEFINITELY worth it. THE ART OF FLASH FICTION

I recommended Kathy’s substack above any other one. Kathy is a wonderful and generous writing teacher and a fabulous writer.

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by | March 13, 2026 · 1:41 pm

One More Week Before Scrap’s Release!!!

I’m looking forward to the blog tours for my new book Scrap: Salvaging a Family, published by ELJ Editions.

First up are friend blogs!

Joy Neal Kidney, March 21, book review

Liz Gauffreau, March 23, book review

Marie Ann Bailey, March 24, book review

John W. Howell, March 25, book excerpt

Miriam Hurdle, March 30, companion story to Scrap

(If you want to participate just let me know at luanne[dot]castle[at]gmail.com :)!)

Then there is an April and May tour through Poetic Book Tours, schedule in link.

POETIC BOOK TOUR FOR SCRAP

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by | March 6, 2026 · 6:20 am

Family in All Its Human Pain, Mystery, and Love

The official release for Scrap: Salvaging a Family (ELJ Editions) is in two weeks, but you can read about it now. The journal Your Impossible Voice has published an amazing review by Wilma J. Kahn. What a blessing to my eighteen-year project!

A memoir in flash, Scrap focuses on three discrete parts of Castle’s life in relation to her parents, especially her father. “Scrap” is a multivalent word around whose every meaning and nuance Castle fashions poignant—and sometimes horrifying—flash prose and poetry to reveal her family in all its human pain, mystery, and love.

REVIEW OF SCRAP BY WILMA J KAHN

On a related note, the journal Fictive Dream published my flash story, “The Nice Girls.”

THE NICE GIRLS

LatinosUSA has put Kin Types on its Bookshelf! And MasticadoresUSA has published a poem from that collection: What Lies Inside

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The Sweet Acacias have blossomed! I have such a love-hate relationship with these guys. They are so sweet smelling, but gosh, everybody is “allergic” to them! They bloom at least twice a year.

I’ve mentioned here that I haven’t had time to write in the last few months, but I am trying to write a few tiny drafts now. If I can accomplish first drafts of flash or poems, a few a week, for a few weeks I will feel better. I don’t feel as well when I’m not writing. I feel distinctly WEIRD.

Lately, I’m reading a mystery series by Kate Ellis–the Wesley Peterson books–which feature contemporary murder mysteries with archeology stories. I learned about the Plague Maiden. Have you ever heard of her? She appeared before a community was hit by the Bubonic Plague or Black Death. She was a woman, sometimes a skeleton, dressed in white and carrying a rake or a broom to sweep away all the dead. In the book, she sometimes wears a red scarf.

Do a quick Google search if you want to be creeped out by the variety of depictions of this scary folk character.

I feel like she needs to show up in a story I write, but I have no idea how or when. Maybe you would like to write a story about her? If so, post it so I can read it!

 

 

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Filed under #AmWriting, Book Review, ELJ Editions, Flash Fiction, Flash Nonfiction, hybrid memoir, Memoir, Microfiction, SCRAP: SALVAGING A FAMILY

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