Every year around this time in December I experience a longing for home. Well, I have a home, of course, a beautiful one I share with my husband and two adult twins. I’m talking about the nostalgic idea of my former home in another country—Germany. A long time ago I left to start a life […]
Combating Homesickness Read More »
This morning I was reading on the Writers Unboxed blog about how readers who don’t like the book you wrote may post bad reviews. The author talked about the content kicking off the reader’s imagination and that sometimes a reader is just not taken by a story. Whether it’s not to their taste, period, or
How Chain Hotels Poison Us and the Environment This post is a bit off my usual subjects, but I’m feeling pretty strongly about it so I wanted to share. Lately I’m traveling quite a bit, staying in typical mid-range hotels. I’ve been annoyed for a while now about hotel breakfasts. I guess years ago hotels
Would You Like Some Styrofoam with Your Doughnut? Read More »
In March 2012 I submitted a travel story to goNomad, a pretty well-known online travel magazine. At the time I was still into writing travel stories and I’d developed a longer piece about a trip we took with our friends, two American couples, to Germany. For a good two weeks I played guide as we
Patience and Perserverance Read More »
Two weeks ago my husband and I set out to go camping in Michigan. We’d prepared well, bought a tent, dusted off sleeping bags, cooking utensils and air mattresses. We’d bought Michigan’s Best Tent Camping and Trout Streams of Michigan, we had bicycle gear, fishing gear and everything in-between. The GTI was packed to the
Tent Camping Isn’t for Cowards Read More »
As I’m renewing my struggle with the first chapter of a manuscript I wrote five years ago, I’m perusing a lot of the advice on first chapters. I’ve noticed that the majority of first chapters of contemporary fiction, no matter what the genre, are extremely well written. Often the quality diminishes later in the book,
Do’s and Don’ts of First Chapters Read More »
Last night I went for a bike ride. Nothing special except that I hadn’t been in the saddle since May. While my husband was chugging away the miles and training for a triathlon I’d found excuses not to ride. It was too hot, I was too tired, laundry was piling up, I had to walk
Bicycling Away the Lethargy of Summer Read More »
I admit I only did three days instead of the ten I’d aimed for. On day three I was ready to kill someone, felt depressed and unbearably hungry. I asked myself why I was doing this and at last…made a spinach salad. Food never tasted this good! I have a new respect for anyone who’s
Last evening was pretty miserable. The empty feeling in the stomach is just plain uncomfortable. Strangely, I never missed the chocolate, just some decent food I could “chew.” This morning the scale is at 150 lbs so I lost one pound. Yeah. My daughter lost three. (How did she do this?) But as I mentioned
Juice Fast – Day Two Read More »
We began our juice fast this morning. The scale showed 151 pounds. It took about ten minutes total to wash the produce—four apples, one half lemon, one orange, four celery stalks, one carrot, piece of cucumber and three kale leaves—and run them through the juicer. Result: about 30 oz of juice (two portions). Mottled green
Juice Fast – Day One Read More »