You may contact me at sbodus AT yahoo dot com. Spam will be roundfiled.
The name of this blog is an oblique reference to Little Red Riding Hood as well as a nod to my WIP Out of the Woods.  Yes, I do know that the name is actually from a chirpy little song about going to Grandma’s house, but it always makes me think of Red’s surprise encounter with a wolf at her grandmother’s cabin in the woods. I also know that this fairy tale has some sinister interpretations.

Here are two excerpts from my memoir-in-progress (originally titled Black Sheep Sings), now Out of the Woods::
Black Sheep Sings excerpt
Mama Sings the Blues

I finished my memoir in 2010 and put it on the back burner because I had a stroke the day I finished it and I felt it was disorganized to an extent I didn’t have the energy to fix. For years I’ve been reticent to go back and revise because I thought it’d kill me. I’m back at it now.

I have several works on burners:

• children’s story called The Adventures of Oliver Cotton Midgefield and Fidget Copperbum, which is about two brownies (fae folk) in search of a new home
• a children’s story called Myla’s List of Efficient Words
• a romantic suspense about three sisters and their underground op rescuing trafficking victims.
• a book on PBL (project-based learning)

If you’re writing, too, I hope you’ll come by and say hi.

I teach composition, Liberal Studies (education for future elementary teachers) and general studies at SDSU-IV. I’ve written explications for two of Shakespeare’s Sonnets for Facts on File, and I wrote a 30-page bio on a living author for a Scribners series that got cancelled. Other things:

• I serve on the Dean’s Leadership committee, which delights me.
• In 2016 I taught memoir at Calipatria State Prison. This was both sobering and heartbreaking, and it served as the impetus for me to get my teaching credential so I could be qualified to teach in the prison system. Still looking for an opportunity to serve.
• I served on the Imperial County Civil Grand Jury 2015/16.
• I’ve been president of Kiwanis Early Risers in El Centro for almost two years for the second time; my first two terms were up in October 2017.  I was also chair of our region’s One Day committee, and our focus was on literacy.
• I’m the elected Vice-President of IV Rifle and Pistol Club, and I’ve been on the board since around 2012 or earlier.
• Since April 2015, Kiwanis Early Risers has given about 6,000 books to the community, and we planted a Little Free Library at State Street Coffee House in El Centro.
• I prepared my grandma’s papers for her to join Daughters of the American Revolution a few years ago, and I will join someday as well so I can connect with other genealogy spooks. Another back-burner thing. I’ve been doing genealogy research since 1989, and I’ve helped others start their own trees. I’m aiming to get certified as a genealogist.
• Occasionally I teach firearms classes. I don’t have a lot of time for this, but I love doing it.
• I quilt and sew, and I’m delighted by all things crafty.  Sewing is better than doing the dishes or mowing the lawn because sewing stays done. One hopes.
• I’m a new gardener; my goal is to grow our own food so we can be self-sustaining.
• I have two main goals for 2024: regularly identify those things which delight me and to take a risk every day.

I’m migrating my other blogs to this one, so expect some changes here and there. My main focus will be on all things writing, but I’m including my other passions as well. The tabs on top are to different pages; the sidebar has my archived posts.

I have a series of posts about my missing son. They are all under the category The Blog of Missing. You can get a rough timeline of the situation here: Info on the Search for Jake. As of February 2024 he hasn’t been found living his life, and his body hasn’t been found; if he is alive he’s off the grid. I am in stasis. and one way I maintain this is by talking about Jake. You will not wound me by bringing Jake up; trust me, you won’t be reminding me of something I’ve forgotten. I believe that my openness can be healing to others so I speak freely and welcome questions.

If you’re looking for my posts on writing, check under the category A Day in the Life of a Writer, or by searching under writing-related tags, such as GMC, fiction, character development, etc. You’ll find many of them are years old. This is because I just didn’t have the heart for keeping up the blog beyond a post here and there about Jake. I’ll come back to it.

I have a post elsewhere about the video below, but I’m including the vid here because it’s the most important message I have to share. My goal is to make an effort every day to pay attention to those around me and to communicate that I see and hear them because this has been crucial in my own journey.

Angela Maiers talks here about why she teaches children they matter.