The Boy Wonder
When my son was about three, he went through a Batman phase that lasted several months to a year. He had Batman pajamas and underwear. He had a toy Batmobile, which is still in our basement. He ran around the house singing, “Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na, Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na, Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na, Batman!” (Did I do that right? I know some of […]
You Say Grandma, I Say Nanny . . . Doesn’t Have the Same Ring As Potayto, Potahto
I’ve mentioned before that I called my maternal grandmother Nanny Winnie. How I came to call her that started on my father’s side of the family when my older cousin began calling our common grandmother Nanny Kay. I was the second of Nanny Kay’s grandchildren (though a third was born just months after me). By […]
Salvaging Nooks and Books
I’ve written before about my love/hate relationship with technology. That post recently showed up on my Facebook memories, so I reposted it on Facebook with a comment: “Unfortunately, it’s been three years since this post. More computer upgrades can’t be too far in my future.” That was on January 23, 2016, at 5:54pm. About 9:30 […]
Siblings as Targets and as Friends
Both my mother and my father grew up in families consisting of two siblings—an older brother and younger sister. I’ve always wondered if that is part of why they were so compatible, although they each had an uneasy relationship with their sibling for much of their lives. I’ve written before about my mother and her […]
How the Great Fires Shaped Early San Francisco
The last survivor of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake died earlier this month. William Del Monte was three months old when the earthquake struck and 109 when he died on January 11. Reading the news articles about his life and death brought to mind all the novels I’ve read about the earthquake and the fires […]
My Wool Dress from Garfinckel’s
Most people pull out their wool sweaters and socks for warmth during winter. Not me. I hate wearing wool. It makes my skin itch worse than mosquito bites. As a child, I mostly wore cotton—my grandfather kept us well-supplied with Carter’s clothes. My brother was allergic to wool. He had one lambswool sweater that made […]
Snow Days: A Recent Phenomenon
Maybe this is one of those “when I was young, we had it tough” stories. But when I was young, we didn’t have snow days. At least, I don’t remember my classes ever being canceled due to snow, nor for any weather-related events. It might have happened, but I don’t remember any such occasions. Hoping […]
Real Life Does Not Make Good Narrative
I’ve been reading Janet Burroway’s book, Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft. I started it a few months back, and every so often I dip into it again. I’m not reading it linearly. I started with the chapters on character, then moved to theme and setting, and last week I read the first chapter […]
A Tale of Two Retirements
I retired nine years ago from my corporate job to become a writer. My husband retired from his law firm a little more than a year ago. So how is our retirement working out? As I intended, writing has been my primary activity for the past nine years. In the first six months after I […]
My 400th Post: On Planning, Flexibility, and Commitment in Blogging and in Life
To my surprise, this is my 400th post, which seems worthy of mention. I last wrote about blogging in any detail on my 250th post, on July 28, 2014, about a year and a half ago. I write two posts every week—a schedule I have now maintained for almost four years—so I shouldn’t have been […]