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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by | March 2, 2026 · 10:26 am

What’s in the Collage on the Cover of Scrap?

I’m very annoyed with Substack. On Substack in addition to writing posts like on WordPress, you can post quick little notes which have a different feel than a post. But this morning after I posted a note I discovered that I couldn’t comment on other people’s posts and notes. So annoying. I tried a couple of fixes, but I have had so many things interfering with my time lately that I’m at the screw-it stage of social media repairs.

My mom’s financial and medical affairs continue to take up a lot of time, but also both the Gardener and I have had some health stuff going on. And, really, every day something new in the house needs fixing. I can see why my dad always wanted to move to a brand new house after we had been in a home for a few years.

Meesker’s ashes and pawprint came home to us last week. I also ordered a pawprint for my son because Meesker had been his cat to begin with. I still feel some PTSD about Meesker dying at home although I wasn’t here when it happened. Maybe that’s been even worse for me. Not being here with him.

Perry is also hanging out with us more than usual. I think he probably discovered Meesker passed away on the bathroom floor before our pet sitter did. A couple of days after we got home, the gardener and I went out for a few hours and when we got back Perry ran up to us excitedly than looked disappointed when he saw Meesker was not with us.

Here’s what I posted today over at Substack. It has to do with SCRAP that will be officially released on March 20, 18 days from now :).

The collage on the cover of my forthcoming memoir-in-flash, Scrap (ELJ Editions), is by Lorette Luzajic. Every item on the cover shows up in Scrap: Salvaging a Family.

Take a look at that red tomato pincushion, for instance. You’ve probably seen one just like it, especially if anybody in your household has ever sewn. Why are so many pincushions in the shape of tomatoes? Here’s an article that explains.

The Mystery of the Tomato Pincushion has been Solved

(And if your pincushion has a little strawberry attached to the tomato it’s filled with emery so you can sharpen your pins and needles). I had to look up emery. It’s “a dark granular mineral that consists of corundum with iron oxide impurities (such as magnetite) and is used as an abrasive” (merriam-webster.com)

You can still pre-order the book at the publisher’s site (and it might be a couple bucks cheaper than it will be on Amazon):

PRE-ORDER SCRAP

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by | February 20, 2026 · 5:23 pm

Infectious Joy

This winter has been so stressful. But watching Alysa Liu’s GOLD skate really cheered me up.

WOWSA.

WATCH ON YOUTUBE

MILAN, ITALY – 19 FEBRUARY 2026: Gold medalist Alysa LIU of Team United States poses for a photo during the medal ceremony for the Women’s Single Skating Free Skating at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 Milano Ice Skating Arena on February 19, 2026 in Milan, Italy Photo by YantsImages – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=184544074

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by | February 14, 2026 · 2:13 pm

Such a Good Little Boy

Five months ago I wrote an update about my cats on the post “Kitty No-News News and Other Updates.”

I’m sorry that we are now one kitty less over here. Meesker has crossed over the Rainbow Bridge.

In September I wrote this about Meesker:

Meesker, the other one of my son’s cats. He’s shy and was bullied by Lily for years, so for the last couple of years he’s lived in the back of the house with Sloopy Anne. However, just recently, he decided he likes it out front with Perry. Lily doesn’t dare bully Meesker out here because Perry keeps her in line. Perry is the benevolent king. Meesker is so skinny (GI issues) that he slides between the bars of the gate we put up so he can come and go as he pleases. (Actually so can Perry when he really really wants to do it). All black with black whiskers and toe beans.

After I wrote the above, Meesker got skinnier and skinner. The veterinarian changed the dosage on his medications a few times, but an ultrasound had shown that there was something going on in his GI system. I had to go out of town for two nights, and after the first night the pet sitter found Meesker passed away.

I’m extremely upset that I didn’t take him in to be put to sleep before this happened, but he didn’t tell me he was done with it all–and the vet never said it was time or nearing time. I have never had a cat die in my house before. The trauma for the cat, for the other cats, and for the humans is too much. And a vet years ago told me that waiting until they die is cruel because they suffer and feel pain at home and that they should be put out of their suffering before that point.

Also, I feel terrible that the pet sitter had to go through finding him and grateful for my son-in-law who rushed over and took Meesker’s body to the vet for cremation.

Anyway, we are all upset and Perry and I are both sick with stomach ailments. And he looks so so sad.

I’m going to close comments because I don’t feel well enough to be online much, but I will treasure your “likes” as a sign of sympathy. xo

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by | February 9, 2026 · 7:00 am

Prefer to Listen to The Weight of Snow and Regret? You’re in Luck!

Elizabeth Gauffreau’s newest novel, The Weight of Snow and Regret is now available on audio book. I think this is a fabulous move. Some people have vision issues and want to listen to novels. Some people have long commutes and like to “read” along the way. In fact, years ago, that’s how I first read Joy Luck Club–on my commute. The audio version at that time was read by the author Amy Tan.

I posted a review of Liz’s novel in October. Here it is if you missed it: REVIEW

Here’s the link to the audio version:

https://books2read.com/WeightofSnow

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by | February 2, 2026 · 6:20 am

Book Review of Carol Willette Bachofner’s New Poetry Collection

I once wrote a poem that ended with a man astounded at witnessing “a woman / blaze from the womb.” If ever an entire poetry book witnesses women blazing, it’s Carol Willette Bachofner’s new collection, Every Place I Look. Whereas I had only hinted at the phenomenon, Bachofner embraces it, even subtitles the group of poems, “women with embers at their feet.”

I’m sure it seems odd to start a review with a quote from my own poem, but I feel so connected with Bachofner’s new work that it’s as if the poems are siphoned from my heart—or, conversely, as if they fill my heart with their truths.

The theme of Eve and the apple runs throughout, as poem after poem documents what women have been had to deal with, starting with the mythology that she is created from Adam’s unimportant rib. Eventually, Bachofner has it out with the myth in the poem “Rib and Other Fantasies.”

We are not bone of anyone but ourselves,

not stolen property of biblical proportions.

My favorite lines are in this poem:

Why

think we are spilling used blood? We are cleansing

ourselves, making our inner home a temple.

For ages, men held to the notion that menstruation proved that women were inferior, even dirty. But, no, instead we are self-cleaning, creating something holy.

Brava to Bachofner for this thought-provoking, radiantly feminist poetry collection, Every Place I Look: women with embers at their feet. Drag your feet through the embers to find a copy for yourself!

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You can purchase a  copy of Every Place I Look at the publisher’s website here:

Every Place I Look

WE HAVE A WINNER: MERRIL D. SMITH HAS FOUND THE POEM IN DOLL GOD AND WILL HAVE A COPY OF EVERY PLACE I LOOK WINGING TO HER SOON!!!

One person who has a copy of my first book Doll God can win a copy of Every Place I Look:

First person (with an address in the U.S.) who responds in the comments below with the name of the poem and the page number (from Doll God) with the woman blazing from the womb, I will send you a free copy of Carol Bachofner’s new book! I will keep the comments open to give you plenty of time to find the poem (and the book–I realize it’s been eleven years)! (Hint: it’s not that hard to find the poem if you start at the beginning of Doll God).

 

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by | February 1, 2026 · 8:04 am

A Twig off My WordPress

I’m inviting you to my new side project, my Substack account. NO, I’M NOT LEAVING WORDPRESS. As if!!!

My Substack is for writing more specifically about writing, and I want to be able to keep WordPress more for my blogger friends and me.

The article I wrote is called How I Wrote about a Troubled Childhood, and Healed in the Process. It’s about the writing of my memoir Scrap: Salvaging a Family and how I was able to use the process for emotional healing instead of having it make it worse.

I’ll close comments on this post so that if you go over and check it out you can feel free to comment over there. And I would LOVE it if you subscribe, but if you feel overwhelmed by subscriptions, no worries, I still love you.

https://open.substack.com/pub/luannecastle/p/how-i-wrote-about-a-troubled-childhood?r=bvbzq&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay

Yesterday was Hudson’s birthday party at an indoor gym. The kids from his class came and his older cousin who adores him. With all the adults I think it was close to forty people. The Gardener and I followed them home and gave Hudson his retro Radio Flyer tricycle and “racing helmet.”

Then . . . I collapsed on the couch in my nightgown. At 3PM!

Retro Radio Flyer tricycle WITH BELL

 

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by | January 27, 2026 · 8:05 am

Today’s News

I haven’t been very available on here in the past few months. A lot of my time has been taken up with my mother’s affairs (financial, medical, moving arrangements). Last week she moved into Memory Care, and it’s been a very difficult journey there–and her adjustment is, as she described, rough. My mom still knows everyone very well, can discuss family news, etc. but she doesn’t know which day of the week it is–or the date. She has hallucinations. It’s a horrible kind of limbo to be in since she understands so much.

Coincidentally, today Editor Barbara Harris Leonhard published a story I wrote before I knew this would happen to my mother. Missing His Birthday This story is dedicated to my mom.

On this double pub day, Editor Nolcha Fox has published three of my poems. Three Poems

The middle poem is another Little Red that I wrote after the publication of Our Wolves.

I’m grateful for my brother who moved my mom and visits her often.  We’re a team. I do all the stuff that can be done long distance, and he does the in-person.

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