This week’s edition of the Friday Fact isn’t about writing. It’s about the next-best thing: chocolate. Europe is home to some of the best chocolate. My husband, born and raised in France, argues that his native country beats all. For Christmas I bought him a copy of
Read more →
This week I’m revising a piece I wrote more than a year ago. Some passages seem less clear to me than they did on my last round of edits. This is true of everything I write. My words can always be more clear. As the French writer
Read more →
Today I’m launching my first installation of Friday Fun Facts. It’s a concept my son’s fifth-grade teacher uses. At the end of each week, she offers each student a chance to share one remarkable fact. This activity captivates children and adults. My first fact hails from Jim
Read more →
Author Jerry Jenkins speaks often about the two ways most writers approach the page: with or without a plan. Those without a plan are called “pantsers”—as in, they fly by the seat of their pants. Or, as Stephen King has said, “Try to put interesting characters in
Read more →
As a new decade takes shape, a new-and-better website will take shape here. My brilliant husband—a software architect by day, magician by night—is helping me re-imagine my online presence (I’m loathe to use this phrase, but as the experts say, even the literary world must adapt). Though
Read more →
My paternal grandmother was a young girl when she and her parents fled war-torn Greece for the United States. Beleaguered by the constant fighting between the Greeks and the Turks, they had seen family and friends slaughtered. America promised safety and shelter. My great-grandfather, Gus, landed in
Read more →
Today is my Uncle Dave’s birthday. He would be seventy-four. My mom’s younger brother died earlier this month, after battling complications from a single lung transplant. He takes with him a vast trove of memories and shared stories only he could retell, many of my mom. She
Read more →
Today is World Mental Health Day. Every October 10, the World Health Organization asks those working in the mental-health arena to talk about what we do, and discuss ways we can improve and expand mental-health care for everyone, everywhere. This year, the WHO is focused on suicide
Read more →
On Sept. 11, 2001, I was a Washingtonian, living near the Pentagon and working as an education reporter. As I darted to the subway, the sky glowed a crystalline blue. Later, everyone from D.C. to New York exchanged stories about the otherworldly brightness of that morning. How
Read more →If summer is about the wide embrace of warmth and wandering at will, the school year keeps freedoms of its own. The first day reveals a brand-new stage where unseen possibilities begin to dance. It is a time to let go, fraught with questions and the promise
Read more →