For a while now, I’ve been singing “Doe a deer, a female deer; ray, a drop of golden sun…” to Liliana, and she’s learned enough of the phrases to go around singing them. She’s always run and danced and twirled while doing so, and I’ve never understood why, because she’s never seen the Sound of […]
Seasons
As I mentioned before, I’ve been sequestered away up north for 10 days, putting the final touches on a first draft of the second novel. Driving home on Friday was lovely. Where I was, the tree leaves were just poking their tiny brown-budded heads out. As I traveled south, the growth on the sides of […]
Holding Up a Mirror to Ourselves
Can I just say that Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games deals with so much more than a futuristic nation’s sadistic starvation game in which 24 youths are chosen from twelve districts (one girl, one boy) to compete in the Capitol–until death…on TV? Sounds gruesome, doesn’t it? It is. But, sadly, it’s an excellent portrayal of […]
Is It Ever Right To Lie?
Years ago, when I was still teaching high schoolers, the movie Life is Beautiful came out, and it was the topic of much discussion as my students entered and exited my room during passing periods. “Go see it, Elliott,” they’d say. [They always knocked off the “Mrs.” I think it was their way of including […]
Better Together
For the last week, I’ve been holed up here in northern Minnesota, in a cabin off Lake Superior, trying to finish my second novel. Well, as of a few minutes ago, I’ve finished. I feel like playing the Hallelujah chorus. I feel like I should be smoking or drinking or something. Now come the revisions […]