One of the many things we wanted for our house was a beautiful built-in tansu-style bookcase for the living room. This was our inspiration: Photo by Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects – Discover living room design ideas Unfortunately, we ran out of money in phase 1 of the renovation and so we couldn’t do that….
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!
Today is Christmas and tonight is the last night of Hanukkah. I like to think that the holidays coming in this convergence represents the hope for greater amity for the coming year, but I know there is no magic in the calendar. Instead, we are the source of kindness and goodness. My prayer for you…
A Planner for Writers/Indie Publishers
I received a beautiful new planner from Mark Leslie Lefebvre yesterday. The planner is the JoZie planner by J.C. McKenzie and Jo-Ann Carson and it’s made specifically for writers. I showed it to Steve and we think that we can really use this for our writing/planning meetings in 2023. It has the normal things that planners have: calendar pages, places is for your goals, and so forth. But what makes…
Holiday Reading: WMG Holiday Spectacular
Every year Kris Rusch and WMG publish a short story a day for those who subscribe to their WMG Holiday Spectacular, which starts on Black Friday and continues through New Years Day. For the last several years and friend and I have been getting it and reading the stories together. It’s a fun way to…
Why 2023 Won’t Be Like 2022
Each year at Thanksgiving we start the Goal Analysis of the previous year and the Goal Planning for the next year. The process culminates on New Years Eve when we embrace the new Plan and the New Year with optimism and hope. We also give a name to the new year to inspire and focus…
Art and Joy
It’s been an exhausting year for many of us. Steve and I discovered that renovating a house was like having a part-time job that interferes with the other work we needed to do. But we are seeing daylight now and it’s no longer through holes in the roof. We feel blessed. Some of the most…
Twitter and the Cornucopia of Diversity
My writing buddies know that I agonize about writing from the viewpoints of characters that are not me. I constantly question whether I have the right to write about a Jewish character who isn’t Reconstructionist or at least Conservative. But Reconstructionist Judaism is a tiny percent of Jews, who are a tiny percent of the…
Genre Isn’t Destiny
One of my friends has strong opinions about genre and gender. That’s fine. We all are entitled to our own particular taste in fiction. We can have friendly debates about the best genre or the best book in a genre. As long as it’s all in good fun, no harm comes to anyone. But best…
Happy Rosh Hashanah!
The Jewish New Year begins in just a few days and I’m blessed with a newly renovated house and special visitors for the holiday. Because I want my visitors to experience the renovation fresh, I won’t be posting photos until after they’ve seen it. But I also didn’t want to leave you without my warmest…
Of Miracles and Messes
A friend of mine wishes that people would talk more about the things that are not going well in their lives, the projects they don’t finish, the messiness of their houses, their failures to please others. It started me thinking. I prefer to present a happy face to the world, partially because I fear that…