Tag: reading

No Business Like Show Business

My father was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1928. His was not the “typical” childhood: he spent the 1930s and ’40s performing on radio and in the Yiddish theater, where divas starred in ingenue roles even after their daughters were old enough to play their mothers, and the actual words of the script were…


Victoria Woodhull as Muse

Hillary Clinton’s historic turn as first woman presidential nominee of a major U.S. political party has sparked renewed interest in Victoria Claflin Woodhull. Victoria who? Back in 1872, when Victoria Woodhull became the first woman to run for President of the United States, nobody would have asked that question. Considered a visionary by some, a…


To Blurb or Not to Blurb

Do you buy books based on their covers? I’m not talking about the actual cover image, here. That’s a whole other blog post (ooh, look, I’ve already written that one!). I’m talking about blurbs. A blurb is a short, positive description of a book, written by other authors (because let’s face it, your mom is…


Island of Misfit Manuscripts

When I was very young, I looked forward to the Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Back then, I was most interested in Rudolph and Hermey the Elf, lovable characters rejected by the Establishment because they didn’t fit an expected mold. I’ve grown up. The part of the show that sticks with me the most these…


So Many Books …

My mother had a severe book addiction. She needed a “hit” everywhere she went. She was so hardcore that she would do several books at the same time. There was the book-club book, the one she was supposed to be reading. Depending on how interested in that book she was, she’d go a few pages before…


Let’s Talk!

Perhaps you’ve seen the New York Post essay making the rounds. It’s entitled “Why I’ll Never Join Your Stupid Book Club.” I’m not going to link it, because its fifteen minutes of fame should be over. Here’s what you need to know: 1. The author had attended a book club to discuss her first novel…


Hello and Goodbye

Happy Launch Day to me, Happy Launch Day to me … sung to the tune of … well, you can guess. Think cake. Think candles. Think best wishes for this next year, because as of today, Newport is officially out there in the world, figuratively “born.” But, wait. What’s that other piece of music I hear swelling…


Ooops!

Back in fourth grade, I was fascinated by the 19th century westward expansion of the United States. The stories I wrote reflected that. Research? Nah. I just wrote. This probably explains how I found myself writing a scene set in a one-room prairie schoolhouse where a bunch of students expressed their boredom by throwing paper…


Of Course Book Covers Matter

I’ve fallen in love with the covers of all three of my published novels, and you can see why: Aren’t they gorgeous? I’ve been lucky. It doesn’t take a special study to know that book covers matter. A good cover inspires a potential reader to pick up the book to learn more; a bad cover…


I Join the 21st Century: or, Audiobooks

NEWPORT will be released as an audiobook on July 7th, and I couldn’t be more pleased. I do, however, have a confession to make: as excited as I am about my novel’s audio release, I’ve never actually listened to an audiobook. I know. What rock have I been living under? Because now that my own…


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