author, educator, attorney…lover of books, angels, & sailing ships
For Nick Grant-Caswell, the world is a gray and gloomy place. His father no longer lives at home. His sister constantly teases him. His teacher doesn't miss a chance to embarrass him. School bullies torment him for wearing thick glasses. And now he has to wear something even worse-an eyepatch! After bullies chase him into… Continue reading Captain Con and the Red Jacket by PortiaLily Taylor is now available!!!
The frontispiece of The Pirates of Panama or The Buccaneers of America by John Esquemeling (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1914)/ George Alfred Williams, artist/Image in the public domain, available via Project Gutenberg Ahoy, Mateys! September 19th is the day that encourages you to “talk like a pirate,” while many books including my novel Captain… Continue reading Talk Like a Pirate, Read About a Pirate by PortiaLily Taylor
PortiaLily Taylor with Her Author's Copy of Captain Con and the Red Jacket “People say ‘it only takes one yes,’ and it really is true. Rejection is so painful, but it’s all worth it when you get that yes.” ~ Author Beth O’Leary Through my years working as an attorney and an educator, I still… Continue reading It Only Takes One Yes (My Fiction Publishing Journey) by PortiaLily Taylor
by PortiaLily Taylor "Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made..." ~ Robert N. Rose A Brigantine Sails from the Writer’s Dreams into the Pages of Her First Novel by PortiaLily Taylor The sailing ships that crossed oceans in olden times have always fascinated me. How were they built to travel… Continue reading A Brigantine Sails from the Writer’s Dreams into the Pages of Her First Novel
The Bizzell Library at the University of Oklahoma “When I am surrounded by books, I feel most at peace.” ~ Marjan Kamali, Novelist Recently, my husband and I returned to the University of Oklahoma for my law school reunion. The University of Oklahoma Foundation provided wonderful activities for the event, including tours of its Bizzell and… Continue reading Libraries: Where Purpose Finds Peace by PortiaLily Taylor
Library of the Franciscan Monastery in Dubrovnik found at BookJelly.com “If you want to know a country, read its writers.” ― Aminatta Forna In my last blog post, "Getting to Know Croatian Literature and Authors through Travel (Part I)" I wrote about my travels to Croatia. As an author, I was especially interested in Croatia as… Continue reading Getting to Know Croatian Literature and Authors through Travel (Part II) by PortiaLily Taylor
© Chris Taylor, Split 2024 Recently my husband and I visited the amazing and beautiful country of Croatia, the home of my maternal grandparents. Of course, I wanted to see locations in Split where my grandparents and their parents lived, were married, and went to church. In fact, I was moved by the thought I’d… Continue reading Getting to Know Croatian Literature and Authors through Travel (Part I) by PortiaLily Taylor
Yeats Exhibit at Dublin Library, Photo by Chris Taylor “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” ― Dr. Seuss As Dr. Seuss wrote, “The more you read, the more things you will know.” And the variety of those many “things you will… Continue reading Literary Travel: Just the Ticket for Readers Looking for “Places [to] Go” by PortiaLily Taylor
“And I rose In rainy autumn And walked abroad in a shower of all my days...” ~ Dylan Thomas from Poem in October These words of Dylan Thomas from his Poem in October symbolize his reflecting on past experiences that impacted his life and self-awareness. As I, too, consider “a shower of all my days,”… Continue reading Visiting Iconic Locations Where Dylan Thomas “Lived & Scribbled” by PortiaLily Taylor
Second in the Series "WHERE THEY LIVED & SCRIBBLED" by PortiaLily Taylor Despite being famous for “Invisible Man,” few Oklahomans have been as visible as Ralph Waldo Ellison—a man who the New York Times once said is “among the gods of America’s literary Parnassus.” — Kennedy Parker I discovered author, literary critic, and scholar Ralph… Continue reading Visiting Oklahoma City, the First Home of Ralph Ellison
