Monthly Archives: August 2025

August 18, 2025

Room 428 waits under a single hanging bulb, its light pooling over uneven stone and towers of books that lean in like old friends. Pages lie scattered across the floor, a few still warm from the last flurry of work. … Continue reading

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Wake up and Smell the Paints  

  Doris von TettenbornHonorable Mention Off Topic PublishingJune 2024 CNF ContestPublished Off Topic PublishingInspired 55+Magazine I turned 60 last year.  I still have not recovered.  I spent the previous year trying to get used to the concept by changing my computer … Continue reading

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Bloom by Bloom, Step by Step

Doris von TettenbornWon Off Topic Publishing September 2023Creative Non-Fiction contestPublished in Off Topic Publishing,Inspired 55+Lifestyle MagazineRecipes and Roots The ruins of my garden were visible from the deck for some time, but I had not yet ventured outside.  It was … Continue reading

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My Father’s Dream Life

Doris von TettenbornPublished in The Globe and MailJuly 2, 2014 My parents bought their farm in 1958. In 2013, they held the farm auction that sold the dream.My father worked hard. If farming was rewarded by the hard work put … Continue reading

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Writing in the Margins

Writing in the Margins is where the story slips off the page and wanders into the back room, timelines bend, space shifts. Authors and characters might share coffee, swap gossip and argue about how the book is going. The rules … Continue reading

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August 4, 2025 Ready or Not

The back room smells like paper and coffee. Drafts are piled in uneven towers. A laptop glows on the cluttered table like a spaceship in the middle of a used bookstore. Doris’s finger hovers over the Publish button. Grace leans … Continue reading

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July 17,2025 Who are These People?

Doris turns to the young girl.“I don’t know you, do I?” Before the girl can answer, a sharp cry echoes across the room. Doris spins toward the sound. “A baby?” Everyone starts talking at once. The girl answers. “I’m Calliope. … Continue reading

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July 16, 2025 Introduction

Doris stops. She doesn’t remember this door, or this sign.  She reads it again, out loud. Early Landfill Room 428NE Memory Lane  What? Something flickers in the back corner of her mind.  She shrugs it off and yanks back too hard … Continue reading

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Showing My Work

  I didn’t plan to share any of this. But then I read Austin Kleon’s ©Show Your WorkHe says to pull back the curtain, lay it all out there, messy scribbles and all Not because it’s polished. Or finished.Not because … Continue reading

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