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Sunday Letter: 03.04.18

March 4, 2018 By Talya Tate Boerner

Dear Sunday Letter Readers,

How are you? Fine I hope. When I was a kid, I started letters to friends in this way with six words, six syllables. The opposite of compelling. Flat as a flitter. Really grabs you and makes you want to keep reading, doesn’t it?

Makes you say, “Boy, I bet she’ll be a writer someday.”

?

The important thing to remember is that we all start somewhere whether we’re learning to walk or read, learning to write code for our blogs, learning to clean the p-trap so the bathroom sink will drain in good time.

Bottom line. We don’t get anywhere if we don’t start somewhere. This goes double for writers.

Question: Do you come from a place where flat as a flitter is/was a common phrase? If not, here’s all you need to know==> A flitter is flatter than a pancake. Flatter than a delta field. The flattest thing ever. Continue Reading

the thinks in my brain and planting Truffula seeds

March 2, 2018 By Talya Tate Boerner

The thinks in my brain? They float and flit and maybe end up on a blog page. Maybe they’ll end up in a book someday. Maybe they’ll simply disappear beneath the worm moon going nowhere at all.

My makeshift greenhouse. It doesn’t look like much yet, only a bright window in the garage. Impossibly small seeds sprinkled into soil, watered with a dribble, fussed over, talked to as though I’m “in charge of the last of the Truffula seeds.
And Truffula trees are what everyone needs.”

Continue Reading

Book Reviews for February 2018

March 1, 2018 By Talya Tate Boerner

Book Reviews for February 2018

Book Reviews for February 2018

I’ll start my February book reviews with a confession. I didn’t read as much as I’d hoped. I lost prime reading time to Olympic coverage. (For the most part I enjoy the Olympics, but I feel guilty if I don’t watch, like it’s my duty as an American to cheer USA athletes in sporting events I know nothing about.)

Also, let’s not forget, February is the shortest month for reading and everything else.

These are my excuses.

Other than having a stack of “to-read” books on my bookcase and a queue of audio downloads, I don’t much plan my book reading in advance. Somehow, the books I read this month shared similarities in tone and mood. While the protagonists were as varied as our February weather—an orphan, a student, a best friend, a mother, a shell of a man—they all struggled to survive or find something lost.

From Civil War Arkansas, to the Golden Age of Hollywood and present-day Mississippi Delta, here we go…Continue Reading

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Hi! I'm Talya Tate Boerner. Writer, Reader, Arkansas Master Naturalist / Master Gardener, Author of

THE ACCIDENTAL SALVATION OF GRACIE LEE (2016)

GENE, EVERYWHERE: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (2020)

BERNICE RUNS AWAY (2022)

THE THIRD ACT OF THEO GRUENE (coming 2025)

Recent Ramblings:

  • Our Garden Mission Statement
  • Goodbye, 2025. Hello, 2026.
  • Sunday Letter: 11.23.25
  • Maggie and Miss Ladybug: My New Children’s Nature Book
  • Sunday Letter: November 9, 2025

Novels:

Coloring Books:

Fiction-Themed Coloring Books

Backyard Phenology:

Children’s Nature Book:

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