“I GOT a message from my dead mother on my Facebook wall a few times,” Wendy Burden, descendant of Vanderbilts and author of the memoir “Dead End Gene Pool,” says. “She made a few comments about Spam.”

A complicated story this, and one it will take some time to sort out. But the trigger, apparently, was a flurry of angry e-mail messages between Ms. Burden and a younger brother who figures in her book. “I wrote my brother and said I wasn’t going to correspond with him anymore,” she says. “That’s what happens when you write a memoir and you’re really naïve.”

read more

My ancient Border terrier encounters a fairy ring

If you are in the area, please visit this month’s group show at PDX Contemporary, located at

925 Northwest Flanders Street, Portland, OR 97209

Here is my painting in the show, Birds of America: Pelicanus erythrorhynchos gmelin

On Wednesday, August 25th, I’ll be doing a 6:00 pm reading at the Ketchum Community library in Ketchum Idaho, AKA Sun Valley. I am beside myself because not only is this a town and community that are very close to my heart, the library is renowned for its selection of speakers and its faith in the written word. I first visited Sun Valley when I was at the nascent I-think-I-might-like-you stage of relationship with my late husband, Tiger Warren. Three hours after touching down at the Haley airport I was embroiled in a love affair that even the most wrenching kind of mileage can never dampen. And not only with Tiger. Suffice it to say, when I come to Sun Valley I am someone else, and I never ever want to leave.