I was sent a video by one of my friends, this one from the U.K. online news site, The Guardian. It got me thinking of how much control each one…
A Holocaust Survivor’s Secret of Happiness
It Wasn’t Supposed To Be Like That
I have this void in my life right now. My mother passed away on Oct. 27th at the age of 96. I had a habit of calling her twice a…
Truth and Fiction in the Writing of Memoirs
My mother is a born storyteller. When I was young, I paid little attention; but when I became a mother myself, I began to jot down her anecdotes. I am…
Distracted By The Fall of the Tomato
Instead of staying focused on writing my mother’s memoir, I’ve been distracted by the plight of the tomato. This may seem odd, when there’s so much going on in the…
Inspiration
Without inspiration, there is no creativity. I have a folder with photos I’ve taken, ones I think might inspire me to paint. This one, I took awhile ago, reminds me…
Why Men Fight
In my historical novel, Sunflowers Undedr Fire, I write about the time my grandfather decided to fight for the Tsar’s army in the Great War. My grandfather told my grandmother…
Universal Themes
In writing my grandmother’s and mother’s memoir, I am struck by the universal themes that are peppering my pages. Love, death and destruction. Woven through all of this is the…