“Matlock has a gift for telling what she calls ‘the secret lives of ordinary people.’”
~Detroit Free Press



Latest Posts


  • No Hurry

    A soft, cool morning. I over slept! Man, that felt good. Then I got up and scurried around and got out on the porch still before daylight. Not too hard to do with sunrise now almost at 6:30. Everything is still, but the gnats, so I turned on the fan against them. Not so cool…

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  • On the Writing Habit

    The first clearly fall morning, temp dipped to a soft and delicious 69*. The pole light still on, and the pasture dimmer than before. I hear a hoot owl! Morning makes the sound pleasant. Some bird trilling loudly from the backyard, and then the ever-present ‘twit-twit’ birds flitting from through the pecan limbs high above.…

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  • I Always Have Gotten Through

    Shadow light of morning. Twilight, my favorite light. The pole lamp has gone out. Can see the pasture and all the way to the line of trees across it. There’s a hint of a mist on it. Cooler, but the 70* is a warm and humid one–still barefootin’–and not a leaf stirring high or low…

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  • Monday, and anything can be

    Pitch dark when I stepped out on the porch this morning. Warm and sultry–still ‘barefootin’ weather– but with a hint of cooling fall. Breezes come far up in the tall pecan trees. They come like a wave, like groups of angels flying along, gently brushing and stirring the leaves at the tops of the trees.…

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  • Commitment

    It’s Sunday, and I’m committed to reading today. I offer this thought: “Commitment to our unique way of life, then is our task today and every day. It is not to be undertaken for our self-improvement, nor for salvation of the world or society, but simply because we can do no other if we are…

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Matlock writes about generous people striving to live and love well. She does it beautifully.
~ Contra Costa Times