Sympathetic and Unsympathetic Characters. Black and White or Shades of Gray?
**No real spoilers, but I do give some insights about The Swallow’s Nest, so beware. Part of the joy of publishing a book is learning that you’ve reached readers with your words. The Joyful: Sometimes I’ve brought my readers hours of pleasurable reading. Some of you have told me that you were able to lose yourself…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Does Anybody Know the Right Answer?
“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.” -John F. Kennedy I know. Easier said than done, isn’t it? Here we are a couple of days from another…
Read MoreInvention Week at Chautauqua: What Can It Teach Us About Creativity?
Many of you know I spend my summers at Chautauqua Institution, or what I like to think of as Creativity Central. Chautauqua bills itself this way: “The Chautauqua Institution is a not-for-profit, 750-acre educational center beside Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York State, where approximately 7,500 persons are in residence on any day during a…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Making Friends
“One of the wonderful things about spending time with people completely unlike you is you discover how much you have in common. The same fears, the same hopes, the same concerns,” -Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks How many friends do you have from different religions? A recent article in the Huffington Post, informed us that some of…
Read More1,000+ Blog Posts: What Have I Learned?
Proman (short for project manager husband) informed me last month that I have written more than a thousand blog posts. Really? All this from the same woman who never kept or wanted to keep a journal? The woman who, when recently confronted with earlier scribblings from a spiral notebook, tore them to shreds so nobody…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Good Fathers
I want to congratulate all the men out there who are working diligently to be good fathers whether they are stepfathers, or biological fathers or just spiritual fathers. — T. D. Jakes I like to think that another name for a good father is “Dad.” There are many men who are fathers but not always dads.…
Read MoreBook Trailer and Debut: The Swallow’s Nest
Yesterday The Swallow’s Nest went on sale at last. Hurrah! Today, behold the book trailer. I am absolutely delighted to have the book on shelves now, and I already have twenty reviews at Amazon from readers who read the Advanced Reading copies and got right down to business the moment they could. Thank you early…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Losing A Baby
Tears are the silent language of grief. -Voltaire Last week I spent five wonderful and intense days with my three brainstorming buddies here at Chautauqua, NY. Our sessions were fruitful with ideas — some of them pure gems and others more hair-brained — flying all over the room. In between we ate delicious meals together,…
Read MoreThe Brainstormers Speak
Some of you know from previous posts that my brainstorming group usually meets here in Western NY for most of a week in June going over our projects for the upcoming year. We aren’t a critique group, but we help each other answer questions about our works-in-progress, sometimes as basic as “Here’s my idea, what…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Best Advice
One reason I love this time of year — beginning of summer, beautiful weather, being with family, hanging out at Chautauqua — is because of all the inspiration in the air. What? Yes, I have found that there is enough inspiration in commencement speeches to fill the entire year. I know, many commencement addresses are…
Read More