THE ARITHMETIC OF LOVE Image Courtesy of Streetlight Magazine Streetlight Magazine just released a dramatic performance of my short story, The Arithmetic of Love, read by voice actor, Joe Guay. The story is about how a woman re-builds her life after domestic abuse. Some content may not be suitable for young ears. Here is a link to […]
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THE SOUND OF A 106 YEAR OLD GIGGLING My grandmother, Benedetta Boccaccio, turned 106 in January. She was born in 1909 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. That year, our country commemorated the 44th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s death. On average, a worker earned 22 cents an hour. Sugar cost 4 cents a pound and a dozen eggs would
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OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL MOLD My short story, Our Lady of Perpetual Mold, has just won Best of Fiction 2015 in Across the Margin. Read it here. Or below. Mattie wrote with a black marker on the back of a large torn envelope: Dear Friends and Family, I am tired. I am very tired. She
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CHANNELING YOUR INNER LUDDITE 0:00 / 0:00 Channeling Your Inner Luddite When people ask if I watch much television, I always say no and leave it at that. Maybe they assume I’m too busy with important stuff. But the truth is that I simply don’t have the emotional energy to face the daunting task of
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EXPECTATIONS 0:00 / 0:00 Expectations “Expectations lead to tension, “ said Susan McCulley, my dance instructor. Then she told us to look at ourselves in the mirrored wall. She asked, “Does what you see meet your expectations?” Nope. Not so much. I was expecting to appear a little taller. I stood near the front of
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GLUTEN FREE RANGE BANANAS 0:00 / 0:00 Gluten Free Range Bananas Every morning, I eat a banana for breakfast. My banana is not a gluten free-range banana. Nor is it a banana with a sticker that proclaims, “No tarantulas were harmed in the picking of this fruit.” It is a plain old banana. When
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PHI BETA KAPPA JOURNAL REVIEW OFCZARS AND CZARINAS Review by Sama Imran Ilyas Although it is categorized under children’s nonfiction, I found myself completely engrossed by Czars and Czarinas, a new ibook by Deborah Prum (ΦBK, University of Connecticut, ) released earlier this year. Prum is an award-winning author and founder of Still Mountain Bookworks.
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ALL ABOUT THAT BASSWRITING TIP Have you heard Meghan Trainor’s song All About That Bass? Catchy lyrics, great beat, terrific message. I know this song is about body image, but you can also extrapolate a couple of writing tips, such as: 1. Perfectionism is the enemy of creativity. If you try to sit down and instantly
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EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES 0:00 / 0:00 Extenuating Circumstances This essay just aired on NPR-member station WVTF and appeared in the Washington Post. *** EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES Years ago, right before an end-of-the-term field trip, my son brought home a notice from his middle school. The body of the letter included the usual information: dates, cost, arrival
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THE MONKEY AND THE BANANAA LESSON IN PROBLEM SOLVING A few years back, I read a study about monkeys and baskets. I don’t remember the names of the researchers or where they worked, but here’s the gist of what happened. They split monkeys into two groups then taught all of the monkeys how to open
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