Fiction, Writing, Articles, Essays, Reviews.
Hey there—if you’re looking for a hot, page-turning beach read to cap the summer season, I’ve just published my third novel: “The Culling.” This dystopian thriller is about a woman on the run from an unjust death sentence who teams up with the mercenary assigned to hunt her in an attempt to escape and join the resistance against the authoritarian regime. Think of it as Shirley...
Genre fiction fits into defined categories in order to appeal to readers who groove on that particular type of story. Fantasy, crime, science fiction, thriller, horror, and romance are popular genres. I never thought I’d dabble in genre fiction. My other novels (Stash, Clean Break) can only be considered general fiction. Not literary enough for the highbrow, not formulaic enough to fit into a...
Sometimes the stars align and we’re all at home and in the mood to watch a movie as a family. This time we went old school and sat down to the iconic horror film “The Shining”, directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on the novel by Stephen King. From Rotten Tomatoes: “Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) becomes winter caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado, hoping to cure his...
There are six of us. We are three couples and all close friends. We live in the same town. We get together often to socialize and to celebrate birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, etc. We take turns hosting. Two of us are on second marriages. One of us is unemployed and battling a sense of worthlessness. One of us is having an affair that two others of us know about. It’s not the same one of us...
On this day in 1973 in Stockholm, Sweden, Jan-Erik Olsson, a 32-year-old convict, took four hostages while attempting to rob a bank. A six-day standoff ensued, during which time the hostages, trapped in a bank vault, came to sympathize with their captor. Although they were threatened and terrorized, they ended up defending him at his trial and paying for his lawyer. The phrase “Stockholm...
Sometimes the essence of an entire novel can be distilled from one line in the text. In the case of “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,” it boils down to this: “So I had two choices. I could do it for free, or I could do it for free candy.” This moment occurs early in the novel, before Evelyn has become a famous movie star or married any of her seven husbands. She’s a young teen, just developing...
Food waste accounts for eight percent of greenhouse gas admissions. The carbon footprint of U.S. food waste is greater than that of the airline industry. Food waste happens in supermarkets, in commercial kitchens, and in our own kitchens. We’ve all purchased fresh food that’s gone bad before we’ve eaten it. We’ve all been spooked by slimy things we find in the back of our refrigerators. Plus...
I know these two companies. They have vastly different cultures. The first company has deep respect for its employees and encourages them to be their authentic selves. They offer support and resources for LGBTQ+ employees and for employees from all races and ethnicities. They celebrate Pride. They offer flexible work options. You can see how they respect their employees in everything they do...
I am asked if I want to hold her and I offer my arms and cradle the baby. She is tiny and buttery warm. Her eyes are closed and she is new and exquisite. Weightless and yet entirely substantial. I stare at her like a dream. All around me, her parents and family beam like full moons. A powerful sense of well-being flows over me. A smile arcs across my face. Immediately, instinctively, I begin a...
I’ve been a writer most of my career and managed to cobble together a living doing so. I’ve had novels published. I’ve written a zillion words for corporate clients. I’ve taught college-level writing. I’ve mentored other writers and have edited other writers’ work. You’d think at this point I’d have a high degree of competency with the English language. Maybe even consider myself a master...
Kelley v. Becerra, a lawsuit before a federal district court judge in my “favorite” state—Texas!—threatens the section of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requiring insurers and group health plans to cover more than 100 preventive health services—with no additional cost to consumers. Preventive care coverage is one of the ACA’s most popular and recognizable benefits, with health plans covering...
July 27, 2022. My mom would be 98 today, an age few people live to become. I can understand and accept that, of course. But she died at age 58, which was a lot harder to accept and understand. When someone has been gone for so long, you only have distant memories to recall, the same ones on a repeating reel. Maybe that’s why I write about my mom more than my readers might want to hear, but...
Or could it? This is the question posed in Philip Roth’s 2004 novel “The Plot Against America” and further explored in the 2020 HBO limited series (six episodes) by the same name. Roth imagines an alternate history when American aviator and suspected Nazi-sympathizer Charles Lindbergh defeats Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election. The result is a turn toward fascism in the...
Logo design can be a complex endeavor. You need to marry shapes, colors, tones, and typography into a single unified whole that conveys personality, reflects your identity, is relevant to your audience, and pleases the powers-that-be. What I call the most recent “Teutonic logo blunder” comes from the East Side Elementary School in Marietta, Georgia, which recently unveiled its new look...
I said I was going to take the 50-mile round trip bike ride from my cottage in Thunder Bay to Niagara Falls and back. But as the day of reckoning approached, I began to get have doubts. I’ve never ridden 50 miles on a bicycle. I was afraid my quads would give out or my butt would rub raw or my back would seize up and I’d end up having to call Harriet to come pick me up somewhere along the Niagara...
The “State of America’s Libraries Report,” concluded that the year 2021 represented the largest number of attempted book bans in public and school libraries since the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom began tracking challenges 20 years ago. The leading initiators of book challenges are parents, patrons, administrators, and religious and political groups. Only six...
They Shot Sonny on the Causeway The actor James Caan died yesterday. I first saw him in “Brian’s Song” in the role of Brian Piccolo, the Chicago Bears running back and teammate of Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams), in a highly emotional movie about Piccolo’s death from cancer. Could that be the first movie that brought tears to my eyes? In “Misery,” he played the role of every...
This time the geese are talking to me. They’re everywhere. Along the shore, among the gravestones, on the driving path, in front of my car. I have to come to a full stop not to run them over. I visit this cemetery once in a while to think of my mom whose ashes we spread in the lake. Today, because of the geese, because of their strange, insistent behavior, and because among all these Canada geese...
Jennifer Haigh’s “Mercy Street” was published this past Spring in what has proved to be an exquisite sense of timing. My reading of it also happened to be very timely, given recent Supreme Court rulings against women. Claudia, 43, divorced, no children, is the novel’s protagonist. She is a counselor at Mercy Street, a women’s health center that provides a range of health services including...
A friend asked how I was doing. Usually, we exchange a casual, familiar tune: I’m good, how are you? But this time I answered, “Angry and despairing.” That got his attention. “About the Supreme Court rulings.” Guns. Prayer. Abortion. This is about abortion. I can’t tell you how much I support a woman’s right to body autonomy, and how disgusted and worried I am about what our country is becoming...
