Category Archives: Writing

100-word Flash Fiction

Ever heard of 100-word flash fiction? I’m not sure how many of you were following this blog way back when I used to call it “Madison Woods” and used to write a lot more fiction. Well, writing anything remotely resembling a complete thought, let alone a story, is difficult with only 100 words. It’s great […]

Feathered Rovers, a Poem

A little time alone watching a flock of birds in the woods today inspired a poem. My poetry is infrequent and when the drive to write one hits, I just have to get it out of my head. And since I’m not a practiced poet, lol, it never has a formal structure. Just free verse. […]

What is the “back burner”, really?

Back Burner You’ve probably referred to projects you’ve put on hold as being “on the back burner”. I understood what the phrase meant, and had used it often myself, but when we got our new/old cook stove, I learned how the saying probably came about. While the previous owner explained to us how to operate […]

Two weeks to Relax, Have a Fun Spree, Regroup

For the next two weeks I’ll be on internet vacation trying to relax and have some fun. I’ll be trying to relax. I know I’ll have fun. But for the blog and social networks, that means I’ll be spending little or no time on the internet. This is the first of the auto-posts I have […]

Nature Workshop with Madison Woods

What happens at a nature workshop? My nature workshop is designed to help you reconnect to nature and express your experience through art, writing, and photography. It can be tailored for whatever environment is available (even cities have nature), but generally we’ll take a nature walk, look at plants and wildlife, listen to the sounds […]

Nature Writing at Hobbs State Park

This is a past event. If you’d like to book a workshop like this one, email [email protected] Nature is a treat for the senses but sometimes it takes effort to get past the immediate sensory input and experience a deeper relationship. Madison Woods will lead the class on a voyage of listening, looking, and feeling […]

Coffee Break Reading and some pretty cool Leggings

Get “No Qualms” delivered to your inbox in daily short bites. Perfect for coffee break reading. And check out the cool leggings featuring one of my nature journal entries. One of my passions that I haven’t indulged much in lately is story writing. Until recently I’ve been working exclusively on nonfiction. Added to that I’ve been working […]

Tangerine Sunrise, Goodreads Giveaway, Nature Sketching

When the sun rose high enough to top the trees it washed the hills in a tangerine glow. The trees are changing fast now and I really want to take pictures every day. I have been drawing more often than photographing these days. Here’s the journal entry for the most recent native plant subject. It’s […]

Busy Days at Wild Ozark

I’ve been busy lately, but you wouldn’t know it from my lack of posts to the blog. New projects started (Wild Ozark Nature Journal) and a new website to go with it, new products, and new adventures. Last Friday I spoke at Compton Gardens in Bentonville about the habitat of American ginseng. Afterwards I talked […]

A Picture of a Ginseng Root

Click HERE for pictures of 2015 roots from readers. Odd Ginseng Roots Soon the digging season for ginseng will begin here in Arkansas. For those doing a bit of searching online for a picture of a ginseng root, here’s a one of an interesting root design. This one has two necks and two root portions, […]

A New Thing – Wild Ozark Serial Fiction

Short Stories Serial fiction delivered to your inbox in 100-300 word segments each day until the story is finished. Wild Ozark Newsletter This is just a short message to invite you to join me for short sections of a short story every morning. I’m breaking up some of my previously published short stories and sending […]

Disappearing for a while

Just a notice to anyone who might wonder why there’s been no posts for a while… I’d been really busy finishing up some projects (10 Common Plants and American Ginseng & Companions). Now that those are done I’m taking a too-short but much anticipated vacation and break from the internet. When I’m back online I […]

A Homesteading Hermit Self-Reliant Writer’s To-Do List

I’m a self-reliant writer for the most part. I’m also a homesteader and close to being a hermit (hermitress) these days. It would take a lot more money than I make at it to delegate any of the tasks, homesteaderly or otherwise, and more time than I want to spend waiting on traditional publishing so others […]

Rainy Days are Writing “Bounty Hunter” Days

It’s been raining off and on here since last night. It seems like it’s been raining every day since I can’t remember when. I’m tired of it and will be glad when the ground is dry and the creeks are passable again, but in the meantime I’ve been writing. When I’m writing ficiton, it’s hard […]

The cost of doing (DVD) business with Amazon

Ever wondered how much an author makes per book or product through Amazon? Royalties aren’t bad for books and e-books. I get 70% on the ones that are listed exclusively through Amazon if the price is over $2.99, and 35% for those I want to be available anywhere else. So, for example, Sustainable Ginseng is […]

Ozark Inspired Podcasts

Prefer to listen to your stories more than read? Do you like Pinterest? I’ve created a Pinterest board just for Ozark related stories and essays. Do you write fiction or non-fiction that is inspired somehow by the Ozarks? Put them to audio recordings and join my board at Pinterest. Ozark Inspired Podcasts I’ve started putting […]

Raising the Bar at Wild Ozark

Today we were gifted with more snow. Yesterday when I got out of bed, the sun shown brightly with promises of warmth at least from direct sunlight. So I let the horses out to scrounge around for what little grass might be popping up from beneath melted snow from last week. We decided to go […]

Torture of Taxes, Podcasts and Frozen Water

Today I’ve been undergoing the torture of  taxes,  podcasts and frozen water . I’m doing taxes for the business, repairing broken podcast audio files, compiling good nature blog links, and making the chickens happy today. Compiling the good nature blog links has actually been a pleasant task, though. And at least the water job ended with […]

Random Nature Connection – Do Animals Plan Ahead?

2nd Friday after Winter Solstice This is the second of my weekly #RandomNatureConnection posts. Read more about this meme here and consider joining us if you love nature and blog about it. Here’s a short Tweet you can use to invite others: Join us for #RandomNatureConnection! The other Random Nature Connection posts: 1rst Friday– Water […]

Fiction influenced by Nature

At first glance it might be hard to imagine how my fiction could be influenced by nature. There are three things that make it so. Maybe there’s more than three, but these are the ones that stand out for me. Setting, Plants and Predators   Specifically, it’s the places where the stories take place, the relationships that […]

Cover and Sample Page

Here’s the cover and sample page for “Forest Companions”, the last book in the “Into the Ginseng Wood” series. Should be at Amazon by the weekend! If you want to catch up on the others, heres a link to the first one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OFAMAS6. They open into full page photos, no double-tapping required! Click on the image […]

My Results from the Humanmetrics Jung Typology Test™

The Humanmetrics Jung Typology Test™ was a fun, free little online test, sort of like the Myers-Briggs test to determine personality types: https://www.humanmetrics.com/index.htm#intro. After you’re done and when you click on the “Career Choices” info button, it gives some details about the kinds of careers that would be most satisfying for your type. I found […]

Broomsedge, not Fescue

An Author’s Corrections: It’s Broomsedge, not Fescue When I wrote No Qualms I described the shadeling as having hair that resembled fescue. That’s because I’d always thought the grass I had in mind was fescue. Recently I learned that it is in fact a grass commonly called broomsedge (possibly Andropogon virginicus). It might be a […]

How Far Removed – Predator and Prey

Out here we have a healthy balance between predator and prey. Squirrels crowd the treetops, mice are at home in sheds and even in our house if we aren’t diligent. Snakes lurk everywhere. Predator and Prey Coyotes are plentiful. The dogs break into a discordant chorus when they hear their wild cousins yapping on the […]