Professional Wednesday: Thoughts After Virtual Boskone
Boskone was held this past weekend. Virtually, of course. It has quickly become one of my favorite conventions, and it was the only in-person convention I attended last year (not counting the SAGA...
View ArticleMonday Musings: My Declaration of Creative Independence
So many professional issues on my mind today — I’m finding it hard to organize my thoughts into something coherent. These remain hard times for creators. Writers, musicians and composers, visual...
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Creative Friday: My Brother the Artist
For this week’s Creative Friday post, I would like to tell you about my brother, Jim. It happens to be his birthday, so please feel free to wish him many happy returns of the day. Jim is a painter. He...
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Monday Musings: A Paean to the “Shuffle” Command
Let’s begin with the obvious: Everything that’s old is great, and new stuff sucks. It’s important to get that out of the way before we move on. I mean who are we kidding? The way things were when we...
View ArticleMonday Musings: Easing Back In
Dear Friends, About five weeks ago, I announced on various platforms that I would be withdrawing from social media for a while, and would also be delaying the releases of some upcoming projects. My...
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Monday Musings: My Decision to Start Therapy — A #HoldOnToTheLight Post
Shortly after I graduated from college, back in Medieval times, I corresponded with a dear college friend, one who continues to this day to be a close friend. At the time, she was dealing with some...
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Professional Wednesday: Work as Balm
Continuing this week’s theme of maintaining mental health through difficult times . . . Back in March, when our daughter’s cancer was diagnosed, my first impulse was to put everything on pause. I...
View ArticleMonday Musings: Taking Stock This Thanksgiving Week
A year ago at this time, I wrote a post about Thanksgiving — random thoughts on the holiday, essentially. I just reread it, and laughed once more at some of the memories I recounted. Part of the post...
View ArticleMonday Musings: Christmas Trees Don’t Belong In November. Just Sayin’
When I was a kid, growing up culturally Jewish in the suburbs of New York City, we used to celebrate Christmas. Many of the Jewish families in our town did, and so too did some of our Jewish relatives...
View ArticleMonday Musings: Thoughts on GET BACK, the Beatles Documentary
Before watching it over the last week, I’d heard and read a good deal about Peter Jackson’s Get Back, the three part, eight hour documentary (sort of) on the Beatles and the lead up to their famous...
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Monday Musings: My Father
I have conversations with my father all the time. Literally every day. Which is kind of remarkable given that we lost him to leukemia twenty-five years ago. There are, for me at least, people in my...
View ArticleMonday Musings: Showing 2021 The Door
A year ago, as 2020 was winding down and the nation was exhausted from months of lockdowns and economic devastation, from a disturbingly divisive Presidential campaign, and from the anti-democratic...
View ArticleProfessional Wednesday: Writing To Heal
Writing saved me this year. I have been through a lot over the past 12 months, from dealing with the devastating reality of one of my kids having cancer, to coming to terms with my personal mental...
View ArticleMonday Musings: Uncertainty, Optimism, and the New Year
I have been sitting in front of this screen for the better part of an hour, trying to write something for my opening Monday post of 2022. I am in no mood for prognosticating. With Covid still raging,...
View ArticleMonday Musings: How I Started Writing — A Case Study of Dubious Worth, part I
I’m often asked how I became an author, and by way of answering, I point to a book I wrote when I was all of six years old — “Jim, the Talking Fish.” Written and illustrated by yours truly, bound...
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Monday Musings: How I Started Writing — A Case Study of Dubious Worth, part II
Last week, in the first of what I expect to be a three or four part series on how I got started in writing, I posted about my early creative efforts and the teachers who were so influential in...
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Professional Wednesday: Throw Nothing Away — A Writing Lesson Courtesy of...
February has begun, Punxsutawney Phil has done his schtick, and time seems to be moving at breakneck speed. In a little over two weeks, Invasives, the second Radiants book, will be released by Belle...
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Monday Musings: How I Started Writing — A Case Study of Dubious Worth, Epilogue
This week I conclude my series of posts on how I came to be a professional writer. You can read the previous posts before moving on with this one. We’ll wait. [Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV]...
View ArticleMonday Musings: Some Weird Occurrences Have Me Thinking About Technology
This past week, I had a couple of weird experiences that made me feel like I was an extra in Poltergeist or Enemy of the State. And I thought I would share them with you because if I’m freaked out, I...
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Monday Musings: The Things We Care About, a #HoldOntoTheLight Post
I honestly don’t know where this post is going, and so please bear with me as I work through my tangled thoughts. I am struck today — as I ponder a life that is both fraught and wonderful, complicated...
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