Fantasy author and writer friend, Shawn Wickersheim, recommended I read The Iron King. Let me be more specific: tough, scary-if-you-happened-to-be-alone-when-you-run-into-him-in-a-dark-alley Shawn Wickersheim, author of the gritty, dark, fantasy adventure, The...
Searching for something tasty for your holiday breakfast? Look no further. Below is my grandmother's recipe for an old family favorite, Swedish Cardamon Bread. That’s right, nothing deep about this post. Just something warm, sweet, and delicious to bite into. Toast...
I’m a worrier. I’m a woman. Sometimes I think they’re the same. My husband doesn’t worry about anything. No, I take that back, he worries about business. He’s a man. Maybe I’m being sexist but, in my house, that’s the way it is. Lately, I’ve been worrying about people...
Every night, while the bath is filling, I play fetch with my dog, Henry. All I need do is start the water, and no matter where Henry is, he comes running. One night, I decided to multitask. I had Words With Friends, a scrabble-like game on my iPhone, going with two or...
Not very far into The Last Werewolf, by Glen Duncan, only 85 pages to be exact. (I’m reading an old-fashioned paper book this time), I was already furiously highlighting favorite passages. I love Duncan’s style, a sort of dark, twisted, Victorian humor/horror with a...
This week I’m reading The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Before I go on, let me state that I only read books I like. If after a few chapters I’m bored, I won’t finish the book. Given that, the books I discuss on this blog, are books I like. (Even if it doesn’t always seem...
Welcome to What’s On My Bookshelf. When I was contemplating creating a new blog, one of the things I wanted to incorporate was a middle grade/YA Sci-Fi and Fantasy book critique section. Three things stopped me. First: It may take me two weeks to read a novel....
Have you ever noticed how often numbers define our lives? Couples, for instance. According to most, 1+1 = 1. As in, one whole. As in, without the other 1, we'd only be 1/2 a person. Alternatively…accepting, even embracing, that 1+1 = 2 unique individuals who are...
After a yawn and a sigh of frustration over our static-filled cellular connection, my husband wished me goodnight and left me with this thought, "At least we have our coffee to look forward to." He knows me so well! This week I’m playing catch-up from my travels to...
Every spring, for the past 30 years, Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) has held an annual Sidewalk Arts Festival. This year, as in many years past, it was held in the famous and beautiful Forsyth Park, located in the heart of Savannah’s historic district. SCAD...
If you’re like me, you like your routine. I dream of orderly days in which I wake up early and refreshed, read and meditate, walk the dog, have my coffee and then sit down to write. After several productive hours, I then feel free to workout and attend to...
What Gets better with age? Wine? Cheese? My thighs? Don't answer that! What I’m really wondering is, what about our life gets better as we age? I mean—REALLY age. Early in life, the benefits of growing older are many and fairly clear. Our personal freedom increases...
According to Amazon... The Book of Awesome reminds us of all the little things we often overlook but that can make us smile: Wearing underwear just out of the dryer, when the vending machine gives you two things instead of one, popping bubble wrap, bakery air,...
When I turned 30-years-old, I surrendered to the fact that I was never going to have the body of a super model. No matter how much I exercised, or how little I ate, at my lowest possible weight, I would still have big hips. Ironically, that’s when I started to like...
Our most vivid memories seem to be about either the worst or best of times. But what about random, strange memories? Memories of moments that seem to have had little impact on our lives, yet like snapshots posted permanently on the bulletin board of our mind, are up...
The first time it hit me how much technologies like Skype (yes, I know, it's gone, gone, gone now) were reshaping our world, was when my cousin moved to Australia to marry the man of her dreams. I can only image how difficult her decision was, and yet, so much less...