Books allow me to transcend my own experience of the world. In reading, I can assume the skin of people, places, times, and events that I'll never otherwise inhabit. They make me feel more part of the world and more human. How has reading shaped you? Blogger/teacher/parent Pernille Ripp why she believes children should be… Continue reading On Boy Books and Girl Books by Pernille Ripp→
Do you have an elevator speech? Book writers are told that they need an 'elevator speech' -- a one-minute pitch for when they inadvertently meet their star-maker. It's also useful for talking about one's book with everyone else. Theoretically, that is. My elevator speech rarely gets past the first floor. But I love my books,… Continue reading Hope for Novelists and Other Writers by da-AL→
Holidays and New Year celebrations are when messages about what family should and shouldn’t make me want to gag. They generalize everyone into one big homogenous lump.
That’s when I step back and take stock of the people I know. It does my heart good to see that we’re individuals — and that includes our families, the ones we make, or our lack thereof.
Being adopted has shaped the way I view who is family and who is not. When I found out I was adopted over thirty years ago, I saw the people around me in a different light. I saw them as strangers, yet I still accepted them as family because they had taught me to do so. I instantly realized that any combination of people could make a family.
In this way, I accepted my mother and father as my family unit. These were the people who’d decided to raise me from infancy as their own. They loved me, and I them. But when my mother died and my father gave up his parental rights, I began to question the definition. Was my adopted father not my father anymore simply because the Court said he wasn’t? I mean the Court deemed him my father in 1974, and so he was. Was…
Truman Capote was a genius writer and spoken word performer. He's best known for "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Yes, the movie version that starred the lovely Audrey Hepburn but that horribly mangled Capote's marvelous novella. Here Capote reads aloud his heartbreakingly sweet and profound autobiographical "A Christmas Memory"... https://youtu.be/RUKoXXhvnyg Here, along with his "Among the Paths to… Continue reading Christmas and More ala Truman Capote by da-AL→
As a novelist, tea is one of my best friends. If I want a boost, to warm my fingers as I write my books, something tasty and healthy yet free of calories (given how writing involves little physical energy), or during the moments I want to commune with others (making a story can be like cooking, the ingredients being actually living).… Continue reading Benefits of Tea by Rhiannon Brunner→
In this way, I accepted my mother and father as my family unit. These were the people who’d decided to raise me from infancy as their own. They loved me, and I them. But when my mother died and my father gave up his parental rights, I began to question the definition. Was my adopted father not my father anymore simply because the Court said he wasn’t? I mean the Court deemed him my father in 1974, and so he was. Was…
