Summer and I don’t get along. We never have. It’s just that I thought we had a deal: August. August was when summer got to soar into the 90s, cranking up all the humidity it wanted. In return, August was when I got to give up all hope of accomplishing anything of substance. I was…
Write Boldly Badly!
Are you a good enough reader to write badly? I mean, really, really badly. If you are, it’s time to prove it by submitting to the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. This fiendishly alluring competition asks contestants to create a first sentence to an utter bomb of a book. With enough skill, that sentence will equal or…
Mother’s Day
Charlotte is taking inventory of the photos on my first floor. At three, she lives far enough away that I don’t see her nearly often enough. But this also means there’s always something new to discover at Gigi’s house. “Mommy, Aunt Sof, TomTom,” she ticks off, pointing to a photo on the shelf above my…
Stuff
Some of the stuff we’ve saved over the years is laughing at us. Those keepsakes from our kids’ lives that we stashed away to pass down to them? The ones we envisioned handing over as forever-memories? If you tiptoe past that leaning tower o’ stuff, you’ll hear a soft chortle, because the stuff knows the…
Sign of a Time
Back in the late 1980s, I bought a pottery mug during a lunch break from my summer clerking position at a Baltimore law firm. Harborplace, then a vibrant destination filled with artisans and food stalls, was only a quick walk away from my office. That’s where I found my mug waiting for me. The rounded…
Long Road
The road to publication has never been easy for me. None of my manuscripts were eagerly awaited by the publishing industry. I’ve never been wooed by excited agents, nor have I experienced book auctions where editors try to top each other’s offers in an effort to win publishing rights. Each of my three published novels…
You Could Be Dancing
One July day in 1518, Frau Troffea left her Strasbourg house and started to dance. She didn’t want to; it just happened. She danced frantically in the street, finally collapsing from exhaustion. Then, after a rest, she got up and danced some more. By the end of the week, at least thirty people had joined…
Sleep WHERE?
In 2017, 278 W. 113th Street in Harlem, NY went on the market. Built in 1890, the house had been converted into a three-family dwelling with an owner’s duplex on the first two levels and an apartment on each of the two floors above. Although it needed some updates, it still included charming original details….
