Welcome to my blog. There’s no rhyme or reason to my posts. I write about whatever the spirit moves me to. Reviews, essays, opinion pieces, you name it. It’s all part of my writing practice.
Blog
What a fun read! When Kellie Murphy starts her new job in the bakeshop of the Forktados supermarket in Yarmouth, MA, she has no idea that her coworkers include a zombie, a werewolf—and a paranormal investigator. As if the weirdos at work aren’t enough, she’s being haunted at home—by a […]
Book Review: Freaking Forktados by Janet Garulay
I was so excited when I found one of my favorite Chardonnay’s on sale at the local wine store. Of course, I bought a bottle of the Sebastiani 2014 North Coast. Brought it home, put it in the fridge to chill. It stayed there for a week, unopened. I brought […]
What’s Your Wine Budget?
My husband and I had a miscommunication. I said the cookout started at 1:00. He thought I said we’d leave the house at 1:00.The party was a two hour car ride away. At my request, H was making his delicious and popular barbecued meatballs to bring as an appetizer. They […]
Cooking in the Car
I recently tried the Royal II Restaurant and Grill on Route 6A in Yarmouth Port for the first time. It’s been there for a few years but when I get a chance to go out to dinner, I usually want something a little more upscale, something like the Olde Yarmouth Inne or […]
Royal II Restaurant & Grill a Friendly, Family Restaurant
Autonomy by Jude Houghton My rating: 4 of 5 stars Set in the not-too-distant future, this dystopian novel envisions the world after a climate catastrophe has dissolved governments and left a single corporation in control of people’s lives. The lucky Elite live in Sector 1, where the rich and powerful […]
Book Review: Autonomy by Jude Houghton
For my birthday present last year, my daughter gave me a weekend away at a hotel in my own town. It felt a little funny packing a suitcase and driving across town to spend the night, but her thought was that I could have uninterrupted writing time—a little mini-writer’s retreat […]
Writing Retreats
I met a friend for dinner recently at the Old Yarmouth Inn in Yarmouth Port. The night was extremely cold—sixteen degrees Fahrenheit—our first real cold snap of the winter. It was a good night for some comfort food.
Comfort Food for a Cold Winter’s Night
Your children are begging you to write down the family stories you told them at the dinner table while they were growing up, but you haven’t the faintest idea how to begin. Writing about your whole life is a daunting task. Besides, your life was ordinary, not very interesting, who’d want to read about that?
Ten Tips for Starting Your Memoirs
A few years ago, I attended a reading by novelist Percival Everett. He read from one of his published novels, then he read a bit from his current work in progress. Afterward, I commented to him that his draft seemed very clean. He said, “It’s the result of being a […]
Finding Your Pace
I finally cleared my schedule enough so I have several hours a week available to write. Several hours of uninterrupted writing time. Ah, bliss! Nirvana. All those writing projects I’ve been putting off now seem possible. I can finally finish the novel I’ve been working on for months. So what […]