On a bright April afternoon in 1976, my mother took me to New York City to see a play called The Belle of Amherst. A one woman show depicting the life of Emily Dickinson. The actress, Julie Harris, acted as fifteen different characters, Emily’s poetry and letters woven deftly into a brilliant show. I had…
The Cousins.
My poem, The Cousins, just was published in the mot recent issue of a lovely literary journal, Gravitas. The Cousins We came together infrequently but intensely, with the tenderness of lovers, and the jealousy of thieves. We knew everything about one another, and nothing at all. We chased fireflies in August, plucked raspberries that burst…
Aviary Amor
My poem, Aviary Amor, was recently published in a literary journal called Meat for Tea, Volume 12, Issue 4. Below is the poem — written while living on the water for a year, and the link to the journal itself. Lots of lovely reading inside. Thanks Meat for Tea for selecting and including this poem.…
Multicultural Fiction Award
The Vines We Planted was selected as a finalist in the Fiction: Multicultural category of the 2018 Best Book Awards!! You can see the list of award winner here: American BookFest This is obviously just wonderful news. I didn’t set out to write a multi-cultural fiction book – I set out to write about our community…
Lessons from a Jersey Childhood. (The book I didn’t write.)
Every writer has projects stuck under the bed, in the back of the drawer or on an old laptop. Someday I’ll write all the books I planned and outlined. Today I came across this chapter list, written years ago for a memoir not written, but planned as a tongue in cheek Jersey girl lesson…
A Writer’s Prayer
May I write beautiful, heart-stopping prose today. And if not, may I write five hundred words. May I leap into the unconscious river of creativity with my mind and heart wide open. May my writing be rich with the strange details of my day – the Grateful Dead sticker on an abandoned wheelchair, the old…
On Retreating to Tuscany
I recently went on a yoga/writing/living retreat called On Being Human, run by the fabulous Jen Pastiloff. Below is a piece I wrote, reflecting on this wonderful experience. Photo credit for almost the photos goes to the amazingly talented Barbara Potter, retreat photographer. On Retreating to Tuscany In Florence, you walk and talk,…
Books across the world, and behind bars.
When you cross the wide intersection of Broadway, Grant and Columbus Street in the North Beach area of San Francisco, books fly above your head, like birds taking flight. Pale white, strung on wire, one can picture each book carrying its stories to the far ends of the world. I like to…
My Guest Post on fighting Stigma through Fiction.
Posted on Choices, A blog by Madeline Sharples. Fiction: another way to erase stigma Fiction: another way to erase stigma My guest today, Joanell Serra, explores the idea of reducing the stigma of mental illness by openly describing the mental illnesses fictional characters experience. That is to say, being open and…
The Vines We Planted Book Club.
Last night I had the pleasure of dining with a group of Sonoma friends, and my sister from Sacramento. There were eight of us, and we love each other in the way you do when you’ve been friends for twenty-plus years. We’ve shared weddings, births, deaths and divorces, birthdays and holidays, earthquakes and wildfires, road…