Lauryne Wright

Last week I visited what is now White Sands National Park as of 2019, a wonderous and, quite frankly, seemingly otherworldly gift from white gypsum located in the Tularosa Basin of New Mexico, where I have also now resided four months and counting. I’d been to the park when it was still a national monument […]

On Thursday I read an online Writer’s Digest article one week after it was posted on 9/11. Not only was “The Healing Power of Fiction: Turning Pain into Prose,” by author and peace negotiator Somia Sadiq, well-timed after a difficult two weeks, it also stood out as perhaps the most profound and validating piece ever

Desperately looking for news this morning that wasn’t distressing, I stumbled upon the latest from NASA, which announced last week that its Perseverance rover (love that name) found rocks representing, “The clearest sign of life that we’ve ever found on Mars.” Boy howdy, as my Other Worldly series persevering protagonist Rowan Layne would say. Given

Needing a break from the onslaught of traumatic headlines, today I read an essay titled, “Why do we collect things?” It came from Substack in the weekly Cazadora newsletter by Elsie Morales, this one from August 27, 2025, and it resonated on myriad levels. This piece about “things we keep”  sprang from a writer who

No sooner did I write about the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) throwing a damper on the construction and operation of a detention facility dubbed Alligator Alcatraz in Florida last week, when the whole shebang of a shitshow resurfaced much closer to my new residence. Last week the dubious Department of Homeland Security up and

Last week a federal judge determined that the State of Florida and the current presidential administration—aka thug regime— violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by building what’s known as Alligator Alcatraz, ordering the despicable state-run immigration detention center be dismantled. The uplifting legal ruling requires detainees at this horrific inhumane hellhole to be moved

This is a serendipitous story that goes back more than ten years, but ends up where I have landed most recently, in the White Sands area of southwestern New Mexico. On this Sunday morning, I decided to tackle unpacking two boxes of small, framed pictures and photos, because I have a lot of them from

I just read a headline that said, “DHS is a Menace,” and practically spit my coffee. My first thought was, Ya think? Also, isn’t that pretty much what I’ve been telling everyone since this dubious and ridiculous—and wholly unnecessary—new department of the federal government was formed in the wake of 9/11, back when its first

For months I’ve been traveling back to medieval times—as in a bit of time travel—in drafting the first scenes of my eighth Other Worldly novel featuring Rowan Layne, Alien Origins. Who knew that immersing myself in the world of highly misogynist medieval Scotland would be cathartic relief from current US atrocities? But here’s the ultimate

Something marvelous happened to me in New Mexico yesterday. Not to mention uncanny. Back in April 2021 while living in Nevada, my blog post honored Earth Day, noting that the celebration marks the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970, and how I just might be more cautiously hopeful for the planet than I’d