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Kana's Chronicles

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Tag: Reading

The Lost Map

watercolor map of the world, with pins in many countrires
November 15, 2025November 16, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 22 Comments

WordPress used to have a widget I loved. I love maps in any case---I'm a certifiable cartophile, and this map I loved in particular. A blogger could put this widget on the side of the page, and its map showed all the countries in which the blog had been read. SO cool. I can still … Continue reading The Lost Map

Cross My Heart

photo of the writer's wall with cross-stitch pictures pinned to it
November 8, 2025November 13, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 4 Comments

When I was a kid, I loved paint-by-number kits. I remember they always came in three-packs (three paintings of horses, three paintings of lighthouses), and I loved everything about them. I loved the tiny paint-pots, all connected in a little plastic row. I loved stirring up the oil paints with a toothpick, watching the sludgy-looking … Continue reading Cross My Heart

The User’s Manual: 13 Rules

AI-generated cartoon of the writer's desk, with a thick manual labeled "Kana" beside her typewriter
November 7, 2025November 7, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 17 Comments

Joshua Pantalleresco, who recently had me as a guest on his podcast, "Just Joshing," has ten Life Rules he tries to live by. I asked, after we went off the air, and he rattled them off for me. Number One is "Show up;" Number Ten is choose the option that's more fun (all other things … Continue reading The User’s Manual: 13 Rules

Poetry Ambush

AI-generated image of poet Walt Whitman with his hand over his mouth like a mischievous boy
November 6, 2025November 13, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 17 Comments

I used to hate poetry. Really hate it. Like its-existence-made-me-angry hated it. So you'll laugh when I tell you I have a Master's degree in Creative Writing, Poetry. How was that turn-around effected? Two words, from my undergrad years. Walt Whitman. I had a flashback to my old way of thinking, recently, when I bought … Continue reading Poetry Ambush

A Ramble, and An Ode to my Frameo

drawing of a breakfast table on a patio on Maui at sunrise
November 5, 2025November 13, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 7 Comments

GoodReads tells me I'm "behind" by 9 books. It's measuring against the pace I have to average, in order to meet my reading goal of 310 books this year. I've spent the year playing leapfrog with that number---sometimes I'm a number of books ahead-of-pace, obviously sometimes the opposite. But we're coming up on that time … Continue reading A Ramble, and An Ode to my Frameo

A Horror-Stricken Ostrich

AI-generated image of an ostrich gazing upward as beams of light come down on it
November 3, 2025November 13, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 33 Comments

Note: I hardly ever, ever go into politics here, for reasons that are about to become apparent. This post is an exception. I feel like I should give warning, in the same way that some shows warn when there will be flashing lights or adult language... Be warned. Political anxiety ahead. *** I don't do … Continue reading A Horror-Stricken Ostrich

Rejection Letters

AI-generated image of a dragon in a hammock on a beach, reading a book
November 2, 2025November 2, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 37 Comments

I've been taking a break from my novel. The one I'm writing, I mean. There's a part of me that feels like I shouldn't write about the novel at all, until the thing is wrapped up (and, heck, while we're at the daydream, sold & printed!). How cliché it is for the unpublished novelist to … Continue reading Rejection Letters

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"As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts."

~ Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

  1. Tara's avatar
    Tara on The Christmas-Tree Trade-InDecember 20, 2025

    I often think about what aging and retirement will look like. This makes me so happy to hear that such…

  2. Joey Jones's avatar
    Joey Jones on The Christmas-Tree Trade-InDecember 20, 2025

    Perfect

  3. Adventure Friendship's avatar
    Adventure Friendship on Travel DayDecember 20, 2025

    A very informative and engaging post. The way you’ve explained the experiences is clear and motivating.

  4. joannerambling's avatar
    joannerambling on The Christmas-Tree Trade-InDecember 19, 2025

    I don't think I could live somewhere that gets so cold it snows, for the most part here it's not…

  5. alimardory's avatar
    alimardory on The Christmas-Tree Trade-InDecember 19, 2025

    Enjoy! I have a friend whose husband passed during the pandemic. They had always talked about retiring to Florida, so…

"It is not down on any map; true places never are"

~ Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

The Christmas-Tree Trade-In Technology & the SickBed-Nest Spenser “With an ‘S,’ Like the Poet” Now & Then Travel Day Hawai’i Day Eight: the Last Day Sun & sea at Honaunau Bay Hawai'i Day Five: a Beach Morning, a Verizon Afternoon, a Seafood Evening Hawai’i Day Four: UNDER the Water!
  • The Christmas-Tree Trade-In
  • Technology & the SickBed-Nest
  • Now & Then
  • The Accidental Cat Lady
  • When you Assume... you make an ASS out of U & ME
  • Waiting for Godot
  • Spenser "With an 'S,' Like the Poet"
  • Travel Day
  • Giving New Meaning to "Recharging a Mouse"
  • "There's No Place Like Home"

"Not all those who wander are lost."

~J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

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