Tony Hillerman is well known for writing mysteries involving the Native American nations of the Southwest, and he does it wonderfully, but I found his latest book in the series, Skeleton Man, disappointing.

I took a friend to see the latest Star Wars movie (and on it's first day of release no less), and boy, were we ever bored. We left early, apparently before the best part, according to one reviewer (Darth Vader dons the mask), but endless light-sword fighting had us fighting yawns.

Asked by my wonderful art Mom, Ellen Wilt of Ann Arbor to do a piece for her Adam & Eve show, I started with a joke--my nod to evolution as well as Eden--but when I finished I found the piece surprisingly tender.

Questions about sex from women in treatment for or surviving breast cancer are apparently rarely taken seriously by their health professionals. Perhaps it's time to talk.

Move over, Ya-Yas, here come the southern Belles--the hottest, wildest, wisest women to turn heads and hearts since Helen of Troy--in Paula Wall's amazing first novel, THE ROCK ORCHARD.

When a friend lent me her cottage on Saginaw Bay last weekend, I took my watercolors, but forgot my tube of acrylic cheater white. My purist watercolorist friend said I shouldn't need it but a purist I never was.

If you've found me today through the Wall Street Journal, my thanks to Laura Landro for sending you here. Welcome to my Breast Cancer Blog and much more: Also find here art, writing, and a creative life.

The awful surprises in my life have sometimes been followed by oddly sweet ones, like reassuring angels anxious to ensure that I still believe in life. One of the sweetest for me--second only to my release from cigarettes--has been my escape from television.