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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by | January 9, 2026 · 2:05 pm

PRE-ORDER SCRAP: SALVAGING A FAMILY

A couple of days ago I said the pre-order for my new book (ELJ Editions) would be available in a couple of weeks. But: it’s available now!!!! PRE-ORDER SCRAP HERE

This book–flash nonfiction with some reflection pieces, a few poems, a short play script–in other words, very hybrid and an engaging (I think) read–is the end result of my memoir writing for the past SEVENTEEN YEARS. Yeah, no kidding.

If you’d like to purchase a paperback copy ahead of time and be one of the first to get your SCRAP when it comes out in March, please click the link above or the cover image below to get to the pre-order page on the publisher’s website.

For an idea about the book, here is what Kathy Fish, acclaimed flash fiction writer and writing teacher has to say about SCRAP:

Borne of shame and trauma, the secrets uncovered in Luanne Castle’s hybrid memoir reveal her father’s complicated childhood and the impact it had on their relationship. Told in brief, strikingly vivid fragments, and through various perspectives and forms, the book as a whole presents a deeply moving and unforgettable account. We readers are privileged to bear witness to this emotional excavation, one that ultimately reminds us that love is powerful even when it’s painful and that forgiveness is the only way forward. Scrap: Salvaging a Family is a gorgeous and brilliantly original collection. I highly recommend it. ~Kathy Fish, author of Wild Life: Collected Works

 

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by | January 7, 2026 · 6:36 pm

Review of Candice M. Kelsey’s New Poetry Collection, Another Place Altogether

Candice M. Kelsey’s new poetry collection, Another Place Altogether (Kelsay Books 2025), is a brilliant exploration of a woman’s relationship with her mother, with her children, and with a world both beautiful and intensely dangerous. The book also explores her relationship with the two places she lives between: Los Angeles and Augusta, Georgia.

The book is divided between the first section, called “Endings,” and the second, called “Beginnings.” In the first poem of the second section, the poet arrives in Georgia from Los Angeles. In Georgia, the California poet experiences discomfort with remnants of the Old South she sees in Georgia. At the end of the poem, “Because Your Husband’s Shirt is Ironed,” Kelsey well demonstrates this culture clash. At the beginning of the poem, a coach assumes her husband’s wife ironed his shirt. Later, she mentions to the other “homecoming moms” that the dads don’t have a group chat, the women ignore her. She says, “O how the South hates a wrinkle.” I love how she moves from misogyny to that ending.

The poems in this book are threaded with or even end on darkness. Some of the most stunning of these dark poems are about her treatment by her mother. In “Flesh and Bone,” she writes that her mother is “declaring me her own / flesh and blood. Nailing me to her.” Contrasted with her mother in this poem is her dead mother-in-law who offers supportive advice (emails from the beyond) and inspires her.

I found the introduction of this “found mother” very powerful and relate it to another aspect of this collection. Kelsey’s poetry here is inspired by other poets, especially women poets. “Menopause: A Cento from Female Poets Laureate” is the most obvious example of this. The homage is very welcome as a hopeful note that balances darker scenes, such as the friend’s brother who molests her when she’s 12-year-old and the friend’s father who abused his wife over her weight. In fact, the gender norm dictating a woman’s slimness is a theme that pops up several times. The poet’s mother was complicit in this emotional torture.

Most hopeful are the poems about the poet’s children. Love and pride shine through even the challenging times. And although sometimes she might want to act like her mother, she does not. In “Mothers & Daughters,” she would have good reason to send a nasty text (because she feels bad herself and her daughter is being selfish, a typical teen), but she does not, whereas her own mother would not have held back.

Near the end, even with the sound of her mother’s critical voice in her mind, she overcomes so that she can love herself: “Whispering Candice, I touch my ear / and hear self-love with these lips.” Read Another Place Altogether and you too will love Candice Kelsey and her powerful words.

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You can find Candice on Instagram at feed_me_poetry

 

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by | January 5, 2026 · 7:00 am

COVER REVEAL FOR SCRAP: SALVAGING A FAMILY

I saw that my publisher has the cover for my hybrid flash memoir up on their website! So without further ado here is the cover for my book, due out March 20, by ELJ Editions. Preorders will be available in a couple of weeks!

The artwork and cover design is by collage artist and writer Lorette Luzajic, the EIC of The Ekphrastic Review and The Mackinaw. Typeface by Keith Powell and Lorette Luzajic.

I commissioned the art from her. Every tidbit in the collage is something from the book itself. Lorette did a wonderful job of excavating the images.

Here’s a book description to wet your appetite.

The hybrid flash memoir Scrap: Salvaging a Family explores the stain of childhood fear and anxiety on the adult spirit and the experience of reconciling with an aging or dying parent. A daughter has grown up in a household with an angry and abusive father. He keeps the secret of his biological father’s identity from his daughter for decades. When the elderly man faces his mortality, he finally names his father. The more the daughter learns about her father’s early life and origins, the more she understands him which leads to forgiveness for the past.

I really hope that you’re going to enjoy the structure of the book which is made up of short micro or flash pieces, a longerish (hahaha) central piece, a few poems, and some dedicated glimpses of reflection.

P.S. You might be wondering if there will be a cat in the book. Yes, and there is an image in the collage on the book cover. Look very closely at the bottom right, and you will see a little black cat.

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by | January 1, 2026 · 1:54 pm

It’s a New Year!

Welcome to 2026! I’m not asking for amazing things for the year; I’d just like it to be gentle with me.

2025 was difficult, although I did have some writing successes in journals, have been working with the small press, ELJ Editions, that will be publishing my flash memoir, and had my manuscript inspired by painter Remedios Varo accepted by Shanti Arts.

*Scrap: Salvaging a Family, a hybrid flash memoir, will be out March 20, 2026

*Hunting the Cosmos, flash fiction and poetry for Remedios Varo, will be out fall 2026

I should have a cover reveal soon for Scrap. Can’t wait to share it with you!!!

The problem with the new year, though, is it springs from the old and all the unresolved issues of 2025 will go on in 2026. My mother’s dementia is one of those things. Taking over her affairs is very stressful and time-consuming, but worse is the dilemmas of communication with my mother. I can still have good conversations with her if I ignore the little idiosyncracies (the “critters” that have taken up residence in her apartment, but can only be seen by her), hearing about her going to a service two hours early and waiting for others to show up, etc.

Both Perry and Meesker have serious health issues. As you may remember, Perry was diagnosed with issues two years ago, but I don’t like to talk about it. All I can say is I am constantly feeding sick cats who need food all day long and cleaning up diarrhea, pee outside the box, and dramatically hurled vomit. And Lily still hates Sloopy Anne. Last night she threw herself violently against the gate we have up to keep them apart, trying to get to Sloops.

2025 was productive for me for writing, up to a point. I haven’t written anything for weeks now. Between grandbaby duty, my mom’s stuff, and these cats (on top of regular work and business), I’ve been too busy and very tired.

I read some good mystery series this year, though, as that’s a good way for me to unwind. Actually, I read far more than I usually do, but then I did have hip replacement surgery in May, so mysteries helped out a lot when I was suffering before the surgery and then during the recovery. Here are the series: Yorkshire Murder Mysteries by J.R. Ellis; Dark Yorkshire, Misty Isle, and Hidden Norfolk by J.M. Dalgliesh; Rev. Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries by Julia Spencer-Fleming; Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mysteries by Deborah Crombie; China Thrillers, Lewis Trilogy, and Enzo Macleod by Peter May; DCI Craig Gillard Mysteries by Nick Louth. (To give you a clue, I am a fan of Louise Penny, Ann Cleeves, and Elly Griffiths, and the series I’ve listed here are more like the Griffiths and possibly the Cleeves than the Penny books. The Spencer-Fleming series is a lot like the Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway books, notably because of the hot love affair in the middle of the mysteries.

In addition, I read some wonderful stand-alone novels and poetry collections. I reviewed just a few of them for this blog. If I reviewed your book in 2025 and didn’t list it, please let me know!

POETRY

Review of Robert Okaji’s Our Loveliest Bruises

A Gorgeous Collection Combining Genres of Poetry, Genealogy, and History

Review of Merril D. Smith’s HELD INSIDE THE FOLDS OF TIME

FICTION

Book Tour Stop: Book Review of Deborah Brasket’s When Things Go Missing

Elizabeth Gauffreau’s Masterful New Novel, A Review

Christmas Magic

Just got a call from my son. He miscalculated the days this week and asked if I could watch Hudson again tomorrow. Sure! (Good thing I fell asleep on New Year’s Eve at 8PM). The other night the Gardener put together a tricycle for Hudson. He’s almost two, and his feet barely reach the pedals, but we can work on learning to pedal a bike again tomorrow. 🙂

Let’s work on making 2026 a tender, playful, happy year! If we all puts our heads and hearts together .  . . .

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by | December 26, 2025 · 10:56 am

A Tanka for #TankaTuesday Poetry Challenge, Holidays

For Robbie Cheadle’s challenge at #TankaTuesday challenge I’ve written a double tanka about my childhood Christmas Eves.

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Church bells ring-a-linged

We walked through the candy canes

in the crisp-aired park

Flakes coating our hair and coats

Sliding ourselves to the first house

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Progressive dinners

Mom’s aunt’s house, then her uncle’s

Grandma baked desserts

Worst part was the oyster stew

Now my fondest memory

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Eight years ago I decided to investigate this Christmas eve oyster stew phenomenon for my family history blog. My mother’s maternal family were the ones who celebrated with the progressive dinners and the oyster stew (a pan of milk and oysters essentially until my husband joined the family and added spices and seasonings). That family was half Dutch and half Pomeranian (an area on the Baltic that was part of Prussia, although the genetics of the German-speaking people (before WWII when they were kicked out of Poland) was actually Slavic. Anyway, the Pomeranian “half” was through the women, so that’s where I thought the tradition must come from. Here is the link to my post. Keep in mind one of the links within the article is now dead. A Christmas Tradition from the Old Country

To my knowledge nobody in the family carries on this tradition. We have all created new holiday traditions with our children.

Did your family have a tradition that seemed to pull the family together like this that is now nearly forgotten?

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by | December 19, 2025 · 8:47 pm

Christmas Magic

Looking for a happy holiday romance? Check out Eden Dow Robins’s new Christmas release available in paperback and kindle versions. And inside find a little Easter egg in the form of my book Rooted and Winged!

https://www.amazon.com/Frost-Happily-Forever-After-Holiday/dp/B0G64ZSWC7

There’s more, too, but I don’t want to share it before you have read Frost!

Summary

“A small town, two frozen hearts, and a little Christmas magic…

Esme Gerard decided spending the holidays at her favorite place on earth was just what she needed. Once known as the most wicked wild west town in America, Jericho Ridge had been her asylum for more than a decade and was the perfect respite when her heart couldn’t risk taking one more hit.

Until Jack.

Their first encounter left her craving more. Something about him drew her closer. No matter how much she tried to tell herself she wasn’t ready, her heart told a different story.

Jack De Vine had priorities. As a single dad, his daughter was at the top of the list. Second was a secret legacy he had a sworn duty to protect. Third was the winery he and his family ran. Dating was at the very bottom. Ever since his ex-wife left him and their child years ago without a backward glance, he’d kept his heart stored in ice.

Until Esme.

From the first moment he saw her, he was drawn to her. That sent alarm bells off in his head. He knew he should steer clear of her, yet he kept looking for excuses to get closer.”

I hope your holidays are joyful!

 

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by | November 30, 2025 · 7:58 am

The Wonderful Feature Called the Poetry Bookshelf

I hope my American friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mine was wonderful as my kids took on most of the work, and I got to spend a lot of time with my “best friend,” my little grandson. The gardener and I watched him the day before and the day after the holiday, as well as spending time on Thanksgiving Day itself. The day before we took him to the clock shop because he is passionate about clocks. And he sat down to explore our keyboard.

If you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you still have much to be grateful for.

Enjoy the concert:

One of the Thanksgiving blessings of my life are writing friends and supporters. Case in point: A huge thank you to Editors Juan Re Crivello and Barbara Leonhard for putting my full-length poetry collection Rooted and Winged on the Poetry Bookshelf of LatinosUSA.

If you haven’t read my book, please check out this link if you have the time.

https://latinosenglishedition.wordpress.com/2025/11/30/featuring-rooted-and-winged-by-luanne-castle/

Enjoy your transition time into the holiday season!

P.S. I’m also grateful for decent medical care as I prep for this week’s colonoscopy. Yay!!!

 

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