Upon meeting a married couple, from newlyweds to having celebrated their diamond anniversary, I love to ask how they met. Blind date or meet cute or online app match, they always light up in the ...

VENTURA, Calif.-Ventura County Star columnist Woody Woodburn credits his daughter Dallas for encouraging him to write his first novel. She is a writer, too. That prompted Timbre books in Ventura to ...

The other day, shortly before autumn turned the page to winter in Northern California, I caught my 2-year-old granddaughter Maya standing on the couch. Naturally, I joined her — not standing on the ...

The in-flight movie screen for Seat 19-B was out of order. This would have been less bothersome had the passenger in 19-B not brought along a book that he realized, about two chapters in, he had ...

On a morning so raw and rough the dolphins and whales sighted a day earlier off starboard of this cruise ship now decided to curl up in warm blankets and stay underwater safe from the bone-chilling ...

What a difference a day makes. More accurately, what a difference a friend can make on a day. Such it was on recent back-to-back afternoons that for me were as polar as sunshine and flooding rain, ...

On the eve of Valentine’s Day, this love story from my column archives five years ago, slightly updated, seems appropriate to share again… If the weather app on your phone says 92% chance of rain, you ...

A recent note, out of the blue, from a key mentor in my life whose praise can still put birdsong in my heart and helium in my stride, inspired me to reshare this column (with the time frame revised) ...

Words fall shy, and greatly so, in expressing my gratitude to one and all who participated in this year’s “Woody’s Holiday Ball Drive.” The best I can come up with is this: whether you gave one ball, ...

A century and change ago, Joyce Kilmer penned “Trees” with one of the most widely familiar opening couplets in America poetry: I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree. The other ...

Continuing the benches theme from the past few weeks, here is a column from my archives from four years ago… Do you have a favorite bench? If so, as I reckon you do, where is it? A short walk from ...