Last week I read a book purely for escapism, a cozy mystery, populated by Jane Austen Characters entitled The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray. I didn’t have to think too hard as I’d already met: Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Darcy, Marianne and Colonel Brandon, Anne and Frederick Wentworth…

Each time I receive a rejection, I feel like I’ve been kicked in the gut. It doesn’t matter how many times it happens and it doesn’t matter how many times I’ve been published. By contrast, when I read those magic words, “We loved your____ and we want to publish it,”…

The start of a new school year, signals for everyone, a new beginning. In the Jewish calendar, the holiday. Rosh Hashana, the New Year in 2023, falls on September 15th through the 17 th. Rosh Hashana is an important time to review old habits and make new commitments to do…

We traveled by plane, by car, by boat to an island off the coast of Maine. It was just the four of us, MFA classmates from Stonecoast re-connecting with one intention- to write and offer support in what can be a daunting profession. We call ourselves writers and some of…

Tomatoes. I have lots of them. Orange tomatoes. Red Tomatoes. Green and scarlet tomatoes. Round ones. Slender ones. I stack them on my window sill to admire and contemplate their fate.

Remember “Quiet Time” in kindergarten? Or maybe it was naptime in nursery school, that time in the day, usually after lunch or snack you were told to close your eyes and lay down on cots or mats, or simply told to put your head down on your desk. Relax, take…

My grandmother gave me an imitation Barbie when I was about five years old. Made of light weight plastic and wrapped in cellophane, I thought her strange. Her ultra-slender shape, long legs, and oversize breasts looked like no other doll I’d ever seen. When I attempted to arrange her…

Almost the middle of July and it feels as if I’m halfway through summer. The mornings are warm and sticky, here in Maryland. We are relatively lucky, some poor air quality, but no major heat wave or intense flooding-yet. I remind myself to focus on the present moment. I ask…

So much to read. So little time. So much to write. Unless I write my stories well, they’re never going to be published which means they are never going to be read. Writers appreciate the skill demands of writing when we think about how plot lines and stories are developed.