I’m thrilled that Editor Juan Re Crivello has interviewed me for LatinosUSA-English Edition’s. Hope you like it! Here’s a link:
https://latinosenglishedition.wordpress.com/2025/06/27/the-internet-has-given-new-life-to-poetry-luanne-castle/
Category Archives: #writerlife
Interviewed by LatinosUSA about Poetry and Our Wolves
Filed under #AmWriting, #bloggingcommunity, #poetrycommunity, #writerlife, Interview
Five Things You Never Knew About Me
I started writing this blog over 12 years ago. Some of you might remember me back then. But the blog has new readers and even with 12 years I think there are things I’ve never talked about. So here are FIVE THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT ME.
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When I was ten, my brownies won a blue ribbon at the county fair.
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I’m not that great at sports, but I used to love water skiing and cross-country skiing.
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I don’t drink coffee, and that seems to be a genetic anomaly because my aunt and my uncle are the same.
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When my kids were young, I got them to clean the kitchen floor by letting them slide across the floor with a bucket and rags.
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My favorite movie is Babe. My second favorite is Beetlejuice (the original one). #3 is Sitting Pretty (1948). #4 is Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948). I love the Batman movies. Lots of Bs there!
Seriously, if you’ve never seen those two 1948 movies you are really missing some hysterical comedy.
Tag, you’re it. What are five things I don’t know about you?
Filed under #bloggingcommunity, #writerlife, #writerslife, #writingcommunity, Memoir
My Life Lately
On Friday I picked up a navy gift bag of Kana’s cremains from the vet’s office. The ashes are in a little cedar box, and they came with a pawprint and two tiny vials of fur marked “Kana Castle.” I’m going to order a little brass plate for the box, just as I did for Tiger Queenie Princess Mimi, Felix, Pear Blossom, and Macavity. Of course, I took photos of everything, but I won’t trigger you by posting them! Everything is on the bookshelf altar of my late furbabies.
The wonderful Cleaver Magazine has published a flash story I wrote about being a medical student on “Grand Rounds” with a mentor/teacher doctor: Another Week Left of Grand Rounds with Dr. Webber
The flash editor Kathryn Kulpa worked with me on little revisions. She was very helpful. Her new chapbook was just released, and I ordered it, but it hasn’t arrived yet. Here is her book launch: For Every Tower, a Princess book launch You can hear little short readings from some of the other Cleaver faculty.
The baby goes to “school” part-time, and Grandpa and I have him part-time. He is very active, preferring to be crawling rather than sitting still, and standing rather than crawling, climbing rather than standing, and he can’t wait to walk on his own, which he can already do while holding my hands. He turned 8 months old Thursday. I set up 3 electric jack o’lanterns to get him used to Halloween! He LOVES his swim lessons. He even will float on his back with one hand under the back. And if I ask him if he likes school, he laughs a gleeful sound. He doesn’t say anything yet, but I am working on “grandma” being his first word. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
It’s been hard to write, between the baby, my painful legs (tendinitis all over), and lots of other life stuff going on, but I plan to take Kathy Fish’s Immersion tomorrow. It’s a 3 day writing party that is free if you are a paid subscriber to Kathy’s substack, which I am. The Art of Flash Fiction Sign up if you want to join me there Sunday, Monday, Tuesday!!!
Sixteen Years and Done
I had some really exciting news recently. Some of you might know that I started writing a memoir about my father (my story, how it relates to him) in 2008. Some of you might be sick of hearing about this mythical project haha. It took many many shapes over the years, but I ended up with a hybrid form of memoir-in-flash called Scrap: Salvaging a Family. I wrote at least 400,000 words over the past sixteen years, although the final manuscript has about 10% of that amount.
My book is finally being published by ELJ Editions in 2026. So grateful to ELJ and editor Ariana D. Den Bleyker and to the many readers who have lent their skills to help shape this story. It really is worth it to just keep on keeping on, in case you needed to hear that today.
Coincidentally, yesterday the stunning journal Your Impossible Voice published a new flash story by me—thanks to Managing Editor Keith J. Powell—inspired by my father.
https://www.yourimpossiblevoice.com/when-you-were-still-too-young-for-school/
This story is a sort of introduction to my memoir.
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I have had some publications I forgot to share here, including two collages by Raw Lit.
https://rawlit.weebly.com/5_5.html
https://rawlit.weebly.com/5_7.html
Prose Garden Reading on June 29
Curious or passionate about Flash Prose and Prose Poetry? Join us on zoom this Saturday, June 29 at 2PM Eastern time to hear some engaging and very brief stories. I’ll be reading two or three of my own. A big thanks to Meg Pokrass and Francine Witte for hosting these Prose Garden readings. Hope to see you there!
Here’s the zoom link:
Filed under #writerlife, #writerslife, #writingcommunity, Flash Fiction, Flash Nonfiction, Reading
Grandma Shark
It’s been hard to juggle baby care with everything else that I’ve had going on. That’s why I’ve been an on-and-off blogger lately. I have a lot of catching up to do on blog reading.
But I am happy that the baby is doing well. He’s now 4.5 months old and started to teethe. He actually started Thursday afternoon. He was cranky, which is unusual for him as he’s a very chill little soul. Mid-morning he chewed in his sleep. He drooled. Awake he put his hand in his mouth. His bib in his mouth. The burp cloth. His toys. His books. My clothes. Then he wouldn’t sleep, but just fussed. Finally the thought of teething hit me. So I soaked a baby washcloth in very cold water and put a corner of it in his mouth. Within a minute or so he fell asleep! That’s when I was 99.9% sure he was teething. Before he went home I felt his gums and sure enough on his top gum I found a little sharp point . . . .
I’ve been watching him for over three months now! Hope I can keep this up as he gets heavier. He weighs 15 1/2 pounds now. You might think that I would get stronger with the gradual increase of weight, but NO HAHA.
On another note, why do babies need such massive amounts of equipment and supplies?! The gardener keeps saying, that’s enough now, but it’s never enough because he keeps growing and developing.
Unfortunately, I introduced Hudson to the original Baby Shark song, and now I can’t get it out of my mind. EAR WORM. If I ask him if he’s Baby Shark, he laughs. If I say, “I’m Grandma Shark,” he laughs even harder.
I did participate in something this weekend that was not very time-consuming. That is the Flash Flood 2024 Write-In. Have you ever heard of Flash Flood? https://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/index.php/flash-flood/ If you write flash stories you can submit early in the year (check website for dates) and then a weekend they publish them one at a time. That weekend was this past one this year.
Then they also have the write-in where they post a writing prompt every hour for 24 hours. https://thewrite-in.blogspot.com/ I decided to do that this year, although I couldn’t do all 24 as we had a big family party for the baby. I wrote ten stories and was pretty excited that they chose nine of ten to publish. Keep in mind, I spent about 15 minutes on each story, so they are really more like highly pressurized rough drafts. But I feel pretty good about how I did. Here they are:
https://thewrite-in.blogspot.com/2024/06/why-wind-laughs-by-luanne-castle.html
https://thewrite-in.blogspot.com/2024/06/the-princess-and-peanut-by-luann-castle.html
https://thewrite-in.blogspot.com/2024/06/elemental-ghosting-by-luanne-castle.html
https://thewrite-in.blogspot.com/2024/06/list-for-involved-grandparenting-by.html
https://thewrite-in.blogspot.com/2024/06/grounding-by-luanne-castle.html
https://thewrite-in.blogspot.com/2024/06/a-is-for-accolade-by-luanne-castle.html
https://thewrite-in.blogspot.com/2024/06/in-manner-of-fairy-tales-by-luanne.html
https://thewrite-in.blogspot.com/2024/06/i-am-whole-and-ubiquitous-by-luanne.html
https://thewrite-in.blogspot.com/2024/06/marianne-examines-physics-of-prolonged.html
Doesn’t it sound fun to participate? You should try it next time!
Just as I go to hit PUBLISH on this post, I feel the symptoms coming on of a bug that the Gardener has been wrestling with since Saturday night. Oh no.
Filed under #amreading, #AmWriting, #writerlife, #writingcommunity, Fairy Tales, Flash Fiction, Grandparenting, Writing
Until April
Four years ago the gardener and I visited Costa Rica. The pandemic started while we were there. In our hotel room, someone who cleaned our room left a small bottle of sanitizer. I remember being so grateful as I cleaned our airplane trays, etc., on the way home.
While in Costa Rica, I heard some stories that have inspired my own writing. One of my stories, a 50 word dribble called “Aftermath of a Childhood Accident,” was published in 50 Give or Take (hint: it has howler monkeys in it):
I have been writing every day since February 1, and for the last three weeks taking care of my baby grandson every day while his parents are at work. I have other stuff going on, too, so I probably won’t post until in the early part of April.
Filed under #AmWriting, #writerlife, #writingcommunity, Fiction, Flash Fiction, travel
Joy Neal Kidney’s Latest Leora Book in the Wilson Family Saga
Joy Neale Kidney has documented an American saga of hard work, dedication, patriotism, and above all, sacrifice with her four Leora Books. I have reviewed Leora’s Dexter Stories, Leora’s Letters, and Leora’s Early Years previously.These first three volumes tell the Wilson family history and the tragedy of losing three sons to WWII through the mother, Leora’s, perspective. The fourth book in the series, What Leora Never Knew: A Granddaughter’s Quest for Answers, describes Kidney’s own search for more answers about her uncles’ military careers.
The book contains heartbreaking information, such as Leora receiving news of Dale being MIA on her birthday. Dale’s sister Doris was pregnant and had only told Dale in a letter. But the letter was returned to her, “marked ‘Missing in Action.’” Kidney puts together information and shares it in an easy-to-read style. For instance, the Wilsons received three notes from radio operators that Dale had been taken POW by the Japanese, but this was never confirmed. The information included personal identity info that was not on their ID tags. Where would the Japanese have gotten this information if they didn’t have Dale?
I love that Kidney included images of documentation and letters. The visuals help to connect the reader to these difficult days that her family went through. A poignant section is when Kidney realizes that Dale had a diary and how it was separated from his other belongings. I could tell you more, but why don’t you just read the book? You might want to read the other three before you get to this one or if you want to get right to this one, consider at least reading Leora’s Letters, the first book, the one where I learned that all three men had died during the war, a book that reduced me to tears in a doctor’s waiting room.
Instead of commenting here, feel free to head on over to Joy’s blog and comment over there if you want to say hi! https://joynealkidney.com/
Filed under #writerlife, Book Review, Cats and Other Animals, Family history, History, Memoir, Reading
New Poem at JMWW
Jen Michalski, Managing and Founding Editor of JMWW Journal, has published my poem, “Edna Pontellier Needed a Bagpiper.” Edna Pontellier is the protagonist of the novel The Awakening. I don’t think you need to have read the book to understand the poem or Edna’s “fascination” with the water.
If you’re so inclined, comments may be left on the site.
In case you’re wondering, yes, I’ve experienced a bagpiper on the shore, as well as many other wonderful places. I used to think I was a reincarnated Scottish person because of my love of the pipes. But it might have started with ballet classes. My ballet teacher also taught Scottish Highland dancing (which I wanted to take SO BADLY but my mother said no), so I was used to hearing the pipes at the studio and at performances.
What Happened in My Mother’s Retirement Community When I Visited?
I’m very grateful to Mark Danowsky, Editor of One Art, who has published a poem I wrote when I visited my mother in August. I traveled with my bad knees and my husband to see Mom and attend our high school reunion. We stayed in a guest room in the retirement community where Mom lives. And this is what happened the morning we were leaving. I hope you enjoy this narrative poem. It all happened just like this . . . .
Filed under #amreading, #poetrycommunity, #writerlife, #writingcommunity, Literary Journals, Poetry, Publishing
