Blog
The art and commerce of the blog
There was a great story in today’s New York Times about blogs and our fantasies for them. The dream of bloggers everywhere is that we will become well-known, if not famous, thanks to the effortless publication that is the blog. That we will be discovered, be invited to produce books for mass markets, make a…
Read MoreSitemeter Report
Several weeks ago, I wrote about my addiction to checking the location of readers who stop by this blog. That confession prompted more comments than any other posting so far. So I thought perhaps you’d like to know from whence come some of your far-flung brethren and (more likely) sister-en. States heard from in the…
Read MoreI think that I shall never see
This is what’s going on in my backyard, and believe me, I’m a terrible photographer. Around the block there is a dogwood abloom in pink flowers, rising from a bed of spiky purple perennials. The lilacs are out to seduce, and the perfume is staggering. All I want to do is sit in my backyard…
Read MoreThe manuscript
It’s baaack! The title and cover image have been finalized. The book tour is shaping up. A photographer has been hired to make me look … creative? mysterious? authorial? But the galleys are back with me, which means the book itself isn’t quite finished and I get to make changes to the manuscript of DAY…
Read MoreThe Good Ship
I write fiction that celebrates the power of friendship. Although my novels are very different from one another in form, style, and setting, that is the one constant. In my collection of essays, “Pitching My Tent: On Marriage, Motherhood, Friendship, and Other Leaps of Faith” the subtitle elevates friendship to the level of family. And…
Read MoreSite meter
My in-house information technology staff (that would be Jim, my husband) just set up a site meter/counter on this blog. And now I find myself checking it compulsively. Sort of the way I used to check my books’ Amazon rankings. And the way I used to play computer Solitaire. I’m not proud of this, and…
Read MoreManuscriptless
Chatting on the phone with Steve, cherished writing partner and Ukelele guru, we covered the usual topics (movies, books, gossip) and then he asked, “Feeling a little rootless?” “Yeah,” I answered, glibly. He knew that I had shipped the copy edited manuscript of my novel back to the publisher about a week ago. Ever since,…
Read MoreLa Tienda Roja
The Red Tent has been out of print in Spanish for a few years now. Today, I received copies of the newly-released edition, published by ViaMagna Ediciones. I don’t read much Spanish, but I dearly love the look and sound of the dedication in this beautiful language: Para mi hija Emilia “Benditos sean vuestros ojos…
Read MoreSpring, almost, sort of, at last
The light is back in New England even if it is chilly, and so the walks with Buddy (Schnauzer) get longer. Along the Charles River, the birds seem glad to be back. That said, March in Boston is a month of yearning for April,daffs and crocuses. I visited my daughter in North Carolina last weekend,…
Read MoreThe photograph
The cover photograph comes from the archive of Herbert and Leni Sonnenfeld. Herbert (1906-1972) was a Berlin-born photojournalist who, with his wife, Leni (1907-2004) chronicled Jewish life in Germany until they fled the Nazis in 1939. The couple tried to immigrate to Palestine, then under British Mandatory rule, but were denied entry. They settled in…
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