D. Pat Thomas

Quills is the annual conference of the League of Utah Writers. And what a delight it was to reunite, inspire and motivate each other, and listen to advice from those with more experience. The array of subjects covered was vast and eclectic: science fiction, weaponry, independent publishing, travel & eavesdropping, romanti...

Few are the pastries that can match the delight of Pain au Chocolat. You can't get it just anywwhere; imitations have a tendency to not be flakey enough, to have flakes that are too fat and doughy, or to have chalky chocolate inside. BUT! This thinly flaked, scrumptious representation of the genre came from Trader Joe's. Yes. Now, you do have to cook it on pa...

The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is other worldly. We camped out there and hiked, did yoga near the rim, frolicked and stared in amazement at the incredible beauty. This picture is from the Widforss trail, a 9.6 mile hike to a peninsula with views beyond belief. If you want restaurants, bars, gift shops and people, the South Rim is your ticket. But if you want to experien...

Every once in a while, I read a book than fundamentally changes my world view. This is what happened to me when I read Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan. Though the book is written as fiction, it is heavily rooted in painstaking research of the experiences of an Italian boy, Pino Lella, as he grows into a man before and during World War II.

The story itself is riveting, the events astonishing in...

Last week was an exercise in working with fear. Any type of surgery brings on a whopper case of the jitters, but this was eye surgery, and the image of metal instruments puncturing my eyeball left me catatonic. As it turned out, the worst part w...