“Sometimes Corinna wonders why they got married if they don’t like each other so much that all they do is yell at each other. If her father tells her mother that she’s fat and ugly, and her mother says that he’s nasty and selfish, then why did they get married? She thought that love was forever. Did her parents not love each other? Then why did they get married. Maybe her parents pretended that they loved each other. Maybe they pretend that they love her and Amanda. Maybe her parents really are like what they say to each other? Is her mother useless..?” Read More...

Happy New Year everyone..! This month's poll asks the burning question: New Year's Resolutions -- do you or don't you (make them, that is)? Do you simply hate change? Click on “Another answer...” and you can also supply your own. The poll’s right in the sidebar there. Inquiring minds want to know... Read More...

These were the words used in a search query by someone (likely a high school freshman) who found StoryRhyme.com. To the seeker: I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you didn't read the story, did you? Because if you did, you'd know that O. Henry's use of irony is not exactly subtle. In fact, if at first you didn't know what irony meant, you would after reading "The Gift of the Magi..."

Update: Jim And Della's Gifts; Irony... Okay, since it's the season of giving and since I don't want to feel like I've got spiders in my soul like The Grinch, I'm directing this post to the many of you who are seeking the answer to the question: What is ironic about the gifts Jim and Della gave to each other. Also, what were they really giving...

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Yesterday, our friend Ira (I guess you're officially a contributor now) sent a link to an L.A. Times article on the passing of author Dorothy Sterling at the age of 95; he thought her story would be worth noting on StoryRhyme.com... Read More...

Laura finds herself in a classroom full of enthusiastic, well-groomed and always polite high school freshman eagerly waiting for her to teach them the proper way to diagram a sentence... Read More...

The spirit of the holidays, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, is really about giving to others. The saying "'Tis better to give than to receive" is true. As we get older, for most of us, there's not much that we need. Read More...

Growing up, part of our family tradition was going out every year to pick out a tree with Dad. I've kept up the tradition of fresh-cut trees until just two years ago. Lazy? Maybe a little. Now we have a beautiful (okay, well, it’s fine) artificial tree. All we need is a little pine air freshener and we're set.

Go on, vote. The poll’s right over there in the right sidebar...

Oh and if you have the time, share a Christmas Tree story..!

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Enjoy our cooler hamster-powered layout (and try not to worry about your 401(k), we're not)...
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Scanning, building, linkiing, coding pages for Mason and Andrew's guide is a bit of an undertaking (Husband has the dark circles under his eyes to prove it). So much so that if it weren't for the persistence on the part of one of our young friends (frequent phone calls to the house), this undertaking may not have taken place so, um, quickly (11-year-olds are not known for their patience and forbearance)...
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I made a dogfood cake and gave the dogs individual treats. We attempted to put party hats on them (except for K.C. who was a nasty little thing), and took pictures. What good are dogs if you can't put hats on them once in a while for your own enjoyment..?

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The idea of worlds within worlds is so interesting to me. After our recent trip to the Griffith Park Observatory and watching the planetarium show, I was inspired to write a story about Charlie's encounter with an inhabitant of one of those worlds within a world...

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It's a kick to watch our world map filling in as we connect with the rest of the globe... Read More...

By comparison to Eli, Chance is a complete slacker. While Eli would patrol the yard constantly, Chance merely pokes his head out the dog door to see if it's worth his trouble to go out (and for Chance, it's usually not). We discovered that dogs, like children, are their own unique individuals. Eli lived to please us and couldn't bear to be scolded. Reprimands roll off Chance's back like water... Read More...

Over the weekend, Charlie and I braved the heat and traffic to make the scene at the 13th Annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at UCLA. We didn't know what we were getting ourselves into, which turned out to be a very large, very hot, very corporate experience; but there were some moments... Read More...

I know, we're wimps. Husband insists he's had enough from his scouting days to last him a lifetime... Read More...

He walks up to us as if he's about to deliver some important pronouncement and -- burps... Read More...

The dust bunnies have invaded... Read More...

He was a little nervous about going to school the next day and wondered about the reaction he'd get from his schoolmates... Read More...

There he was inside his homemade cardboard spaceship with his astronaut helmet on. In another picture he wore his pith helmet with vest full of tools -- insect net, magnifying glass, and compass... Read More...

Okay, this is one the coolest things we've ever come across on the internet... Read More...

So, I know nothing about blogs, hadn't read them and wasn't really familiar with them, but one day Husband suggested I write a blog for our little site. "What do I write about?" I asked. "I don't know," said Husband very helpfully...
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Every night when the moon is out, Kathy the Bunny Queen takes her basket and goes outside...

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Since this website is brand new and we're not finished putting it together yet (and when I say "we," I mean Husband) we've told very few people about it. Read More...

Why StoryRhyme and why this blog? My little family and I, we believe in reading. We believe that a child's imagination can take them anywhere they want to go, and while you may not have the physical means to travel the world, you can get there through books. Read More...

To use a pen name or not? What do you all think out there? As those of you who know me know already, I'm using a pen name for my stories, which has been a bit of an internal struggle for me. Read More...