Killing Our Darlings
How often have we memoirists heard that phrase? “Killing our darlings” sounded stark to me, when I first heard it, nearly five years ago now. Yet, over the ensuing years I’ve come to recognize that...
View ArticleSitting on the Doorsill
A month ago, we picked up thirty baby chicks (sex yet unknown): 10 meat birds (pale yellow) and 10 each of two types of layers (one black & white, one gold & brown). The pale yellow meat...
View ArticleExciting Times and An Empty Nest: My Book Launch
So reads the official launch announcement my publisher put together for me. It is exciting. I am excited. Truly. My rocket book is launched. For the past seven years my singular...
View ArticleTHE SHARWA BAZAAR
I’m back with one of the many Deleted Scenes. This one is something of a hybrid — parts of it show up at a later time in the book. But here’s the original description of this amazing place, the one...
View ArticleNancy’s Midlife Adventures
My guest this week is Nancy Gregory, whom I met on the We Love Memoirs Facebook group I’ve mentioned before. Nancy, who now lives in Ecuador, is a returned Peace Corps volunteer (RPCV in keeping...
View ArticleHappy Birthday to the Two Grandbabies — now they are 11
As anyone who’s read my memoir, At Home on the Kazakh Steppe, will know, Woody and I postponed our application process for sixteen months while we awaited the births of my two sons’ first babies....
View ArticleThe Unhappy Final Weeks
Once we got our medical clearance, the pace quickened. Here’s another deleted scene from our Pre-departure days. The phone call telling me I had cleared the final medical hurdle came in February...
View ArticleDeviating From the Script
Now that the election is over and life has returned to normal, … In the weeks leading up to this year’s midterm election, I served as a support volunteer for one of the many organizations that...
View ArticleI’m Back
Now there’s a scene from the past. It’s been a brutal couple of months. Brutal. I missed the routine that writing a weekly blog forces; I actually welcome deadlines. They help me focus. Even...
View ArticleWhere Shall I Go From Here?
You know the feeling. Options, choices, opportunities — too many sometimes. I felt it when we first came back from our Peace Corps years. Laundry detergents at the supermarket were the worst,...
View ArticleGathering Strangers to My Home: A Cultural Perspective
Have you ever asked a stranger to tea? Ever spent the night with someone you’d only just met? (Wait, that came out wrong.) How about deciding to gather together folks you’d (mostly) never met for a...
View ArticleMy Tenor Story: Part One
I called myself a tenor for most of my adult life, and then, one afternoon in early August, I learned I wasn’t. I’m not proud of my reaction. Part One As you know (from Sasha’s post last week), I...
View ArticleMy Tenor Story: Part Two
A reassuring lie is so much easier to grasp than an inconvenient truth. I love how the cartoon below captures this idea. What I hope you’re getting from the various posts I’ve done of late is this:...
View ArticleMy Love Affair with a House
Twenty-two years ago I spent my first weekend on Chincoteague Island, Virginia. I brought my bike and explored the island; I swam in the ocean; and, I ate locally raised flounder stuffed with crabmeat....
View ArticleMy Tenor Story: Part Three
What did I write at the beginning of August? I started with Weltschmerz, that state of sadness and depression when the world is not as we think it should be. Its literal translation from the German is...
View ArticleThree Things I Wish I Knew Before I Got Fired
I’ve never been fired. Have you? I’ve never gotten the pink slip, the axe, the boot, or the heave ho. Never been downsized, transitioned, restructured, or offered an early retirement package. Nor...
View ArticleMy 50th High School Reunion, Part I: Expectations
This weekend, Woody and I will be heading south for my 50th high school reunion. I am a proud graduate of East Orange High School (New Jersey), which also claims Bette Davis, Dionne Warwick, and...
View ArticleMy 50th High School Reunion, Part II: Memories
Where to start! I went into my reunion weekend with three distinct expectations, as I listed in last week’s post. They all, to one extent or another, came true. And, so much more. One theme...
View ArticleMy Cuba Trip: The Post View
Cuba is a country filled with “what might have been.” It’s a beautiful country, we’ve all heard that, surrounded with beautiful beaches and filled with beautiful people. But, it breathes a constant,...
View ArticleBack to Cross-Cultural Curiosity
What better way to bring us back to the roots of this blog than a guest post on a foreign land? Pour yourself a cup ‘o and get comfy; we’re going to Wales. Here to guide us is Ruth Livingstone, a...
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