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….
Category: Life
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…
Making Things Happen
My house renovation will start on Tuesday, which means that it’s been a year since we first connected with our designer (who is the absolute definition of the word ‘fabulous’). Starting Tuesday the contractor will take out exterior walls and create new ones, create new rooms where nothing except a giant void existed before, put…
State of Mañana
It’s a weird feeling to be simultaneously dry of ideas when I’m writing and filled with ideas when I’m not. Our project board/ideas for new project board just keeps growing larger. Meanwhile, I sit in front of half-finished projects with that sense that there is nothing left in my brain. Part of the reason for…
The Toddlers Inside
I just wrote a letter and as I wrote it, I realized something profound. It’s not so much that my Critical Voice is out of control, it’s that I’ve developed a very finely tuned instrument to persuade people without offending them in writing. It’s something I’ve practiced and done well at, both in work and…
Landing on Gimel
I just signed the contracts for two of my stories to appear in Kris Rusch’s Winter Holiday Spectacular for 2021. This will be her third Holiday Spectacular and they are always a wonderful treat. Every day from Thanksgiving to New Years subscribers get a short story in their email and the stories are always wonderful!…
No Right Answers
I just returned from another trip to Memphis. Steve had meetings and a book signing. I got the opportunity to meet up with friends. One of my friends, Jenny, shared some wisdom which just keeps getting wiser the more I ponder it. She said, “Most choices we are asked to make have no right answers….
Latest News
It’s been a whirlwind for the last two months but we are finally unpacked and settled in our new house and we’ve sold our old one. It’s been a surprising amount of work but the end result is worth it. We love our new home and new neighborhood and we will get to travel to…
Reasons for Hope
Yesterday we unloaded the truck with our furniture and possessions. This house finally feels real. Living in this impossibly beautiful neighborhood is no longer a strange and wonderful possibility, but real! Just a generation ago, in my father’s time, we would have been forbidden to live here by covenants forbidding Jews, Blacks, and Asians from…
Life, Plans, and Kickstarter
We arrived at our house in Albuquerque after a two day road trip that begged the question, “Has everyone forgotten how to drive?” Seriously, friends, take it safe if you are traveling this week! We are exhausted. Nonetheless I managed to submit my tenth consecutive entry to Writers of the Future on June 30 from…