A Rainy Day in Florida…

It's been a while since I've visited you here, my friends. I'm happy to say I'm back on track with my reading - having just finished The Virtues of Aging, by Jimmy Carter, my 28th book of the year. I just started Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace and it may be the last one…

Checkpoint

As I sit and write this, we have used up 212 days of the year. Usually, I commit to reading goals of 30 or more, but this year for some reason, when I set that goal in January, I wrote down 15. Only 15. With 153 days left, I'm at 18, and I thought I'd…

Do you keep a reading journal?

I've often wanted to keep a reading notebook, but a recent obsession with buying journals has finally pushed me in that direction. Additionally, I just started reading The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing, and I can't think of a better novel to start with. As a writer, I forever am jotting ideas, plots etc down…

Some thoughts on The Awakening, by Kate Chopin

I just finished reading The Awakening, by Kate Chopin. In its brief pages, the story comforts me in a way many may find disagreeable. No matter, it is as true today as it was when written at the end of the 19th century. *If you have not read the novel, the following contains spoiler alerts.…

Did reading bring you joy this year?

I was thinking today about how people react differently to a year's end, and I decided most of us fall into one of two groups – those who are scrambling to make resolutions of what they’re going to achieve next year, and those who spend the end of the year reflecting on what has passed…

Tip of the Iceberg: Five Women Writers I’ve Just Discovered

I have read hundreds of books in my 55 years, but even better than that is the long list of ones I’ve yet to open. When I have the silly thought of what I’ll miss most when I’m no longer alive (the silliest of thoughts really, right? As if we’ll have time for that!), books…

Fitzgerald Resurrected

I just finished reading the newly published collection of lost stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and it brought back my decades-old teenage obsession with Scott and Zelda. My younger self was taken with the tragic progression of Zelda's life, but in this book, I found a new respect for Fitzgerald as a writer and a…

Reader’s Mail

Recently a reader asked me why I chose to write about a group of characters who are more than twenty years older than myself in my novel, Oldsters? “What convinced you to write the story of these elderly characters, and how did you get into the mindset of Eddie, Nick, Lila, Bette and Ray?” At…

2016 Goodreads Reading Challenge

I have been so lost in reading, my time spent here has been minimal...blame my competitiveness - not with anyone else, just myself. The first year I did the Goodreads Reading Challenge, I rashly set myself up to read 50 books. I failed. Even as an avid reader, meeting that goal was difficult - especially…

Sleeping Among the Sea Grapes

In my move this week (amazing how less expensive it is to live riverside rather than beachside), I ran across a book that reminded me that being a writer is solely about having something to say - no matter what the subject, and no matter who you are. About a year ago, I was at…