After dwelling in a period of uncertainty about what to write next, I recently plunged into developing an idea for a new novel. As always, the idea is filled with possible landmines and diversions that could sink the entire project and, as I’ve...
I don’t see many movies on the big screen these days, but I made the effort to see WONDER WOMAN after reading several good reviews and hearing an interview with Jill Lepore, who wrote an entire book about the history of Wonder Woman. The film was...
It is 8:00 am on a Sunday morning in the Garonne Valley of France. I lie in bed drinking coffee and listening to overlapping church bells, some from the village up the hill, other from across the river. The birds, swallows and mourning doves, are...
It is high time to institute International Men’s Day, a day to bring our full attention to the many and varied contributions to the human species made by those with XY chromosomes. What a vastly under-valued and under-appreciated sub-group! On...
I have asked my fiction students to memorize a paragraph of prose of their own choosing. This is not the first time I have done this. In the past, students have executed the task gracefully, if nervously. One student amazed me by committing to...
In the last couple of weeks, I have sought out more movies than usual. Like many—dare I say most?—people in this country, I’ve been overwhelmed by the dark political situation, and I have desperately needed periods of escape. LA LA LAND, a movie...
I am just back from the Women’s March in Washington DC, glowing, energized, and trying to evaluate why the occasion felt so unprecedented. When I was younger I participated in many demonstrations, some in Boston, some in New Haven, some in...
A slightly younger friend of mine is traveling now on an open-ended trip in South America. She and her husband and two sons began in Ecuador and are camping, hiking, bussing, driving their way from there to Tierra del Fuego. They might be gone...
Goodreads has put out a New Year’s challenge, encouraging people to state how many books they’ll read in the coming year, hoping that going public with such a number will, like joining Weight Watchers, goad people to read more. I have no idea if...
Sunday night, a week before Christmas, Day #5 of a power outage resulting from an ice storm. It is very dark here now, a few days before the Winter Solstice. We wear headlamps as we travel from room to room. The temperature inside the house...
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