Welcome to my digital world. I’ve been writing (for newspapers, magazines, online sites) since the 1950s, and blogging since first introduced to the idea via a paid blog for news aggregate site True/Slant in 2009. My roots are in small town Virginia and my heart is in hometown San Francisco. For more than you ever wanted to know, click on the tabs above. Current essays and hopefully enlightening &/or entertaining thoughts are under the Blog tab, or grouped in my most frequent categories below. Thanks for visiting!
Current big news: MARSHALLVILLE STORIES is HERE and available on Amazon! You can read about its genesis in this blog post.
I am indebted to editor Sara Vitale, web designer Eileen Mullin and overall consultant/cheerleader Jody Lee Collins, for invaluable literary & digital help.
Fran Moreland Johns
Optimism
Little Boxes of the Past
In one of her many memorable essays writer Ann Patchett has a throwaway line, something about “little boxes of the past.” And since any…
A Tiny Park With a Big Story
You can easily walk by it and never notice. But if you look up into the six eucalyptus trees planted more than a century…
COVID Collection
The Angry Woman’s Dilemma for Today
I am known as a mild-mannered, peace-loving person. Maybe twice a year I lose my temper. But I’m having trouble with anger management today.…
Life Without Nukes? Lovely Idea
A safe and secure future? Imagine. At “Chain Reaction,” the recent annual fundraiser/celebration of Ploughshares Fund, supporters were doing just that. Ploughshares President Dr.…
A Whodunit Answer to Today’s Woes
Sometimes books are the only answer. This reporter, whiplashed by the daily news – as aren’t we all – regularly escapes into a book.…
America
Are We Listening to Mother Nature?
There’s looking back — — and then there’s looking wayyyy back. Interesting factoid picked up in Pompeii, which this reporter was lucky to stroll…
To Be a NATO Fan or Not To Be
Many of us (pro-NATO) are cheering Finland and Sweden’s applications for membership. Some of us can’t really follow the anti-NATO grumblings from far left…
Adventures in Mountainside Driving
A travelogue: The handsome grandson, a Naval officer stationed in Sicily, is functioning as a tour guide par excellence for his mother and grandmother,…
End of Life
On Being Kind to the Bees
“I would recommend more intake of pure honey, nature’s pure food that we get from the bees.” This comment came from a faithful reader,…
Guerilla Warfare in the Park
Seeking a break from domestic and international warfare, this reporter visited Mountain Lake Park, definitely one of San Francisco’s loveliest. (And my all-time favorite.)…
Voice of America (Not)
I got tired of listening to my raspy voice. If I’m tired of listening to my raspy voice, I thought, what about the poor…
Feminist Collection
When Dreams (& Books) Come True
“I can’t write STORIES!” I remember saying. “Real writers write stories!” This was about 30 years ago, early in my marriage to The Great…
On Earning a Living
According to the New York Times (Of Interest, April 9,) Discovery TV mogul David Zaslav “earned a compensation package valued at $246.6 million last…
Modern Laundry 101
Do I really want to start the laundry back home, in the middle of a lobster dinner at the Ritz? Perhaps. Or maybe it…