Love and Other Things

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season, perhaps sharing good times with your family (real or cobbled together). From all those smiles I see on holiday cards and social media, it looks like you did.

But…those public photos seldom tell the full story.

My family is perfect, of course—proof found in that photo of my daughter Sahara—but I recently peered into the messiness of family life.  Continue reading “Love and Other Things”

The Food Angle

Sometime this holiday season, I’m going to make my grandmother’s broccoli-cheese casserole. It’s gooey, it’s crunchy, and every time I smell it, it heightens how much I miss her.

That’s the thing about this Season of Eating — so much food, and almost all of it is laden with not just calories but memories, hopes, connections. It might be a challenge for our pants, but it’s a feast for our writing.
Continue reading “The Food Angle”

I’d Like You to Meet Jacob

I’ve met so many unforgettable people in my years at Gotham I can’t remember them all. I’ll discuss one of them here because a documentary about him was recently released. It’s called Jacob and you’ll find it on Amazon Video. It’s fascinating, fun, and I’m a featured player, so lots of reasons to watch.

The person’s name is Jacob M. Appel. He used to teach fiction for Gotham, and he’s a prolific writer, having published countless short stories, several novels, not to mention plays, essays, and poems. But that’s not all.  Continue reading “I’d Like You to Meet Jacob”