A Milestone For My Bestie

It’s News Squib Saturday. Time to share the best, most interesting (or most entertaining, or most outrageous) tidbit of information I’ve gleaned from all the stuff I’ve read –or done. This week: My British Bestie Becomes a Grandma! Continue reading “A Milestone For My Bestie”

Hey Donald! You’re Draining Me, Not the Swamp (Behind the Scenes #5)


It’s News Squib Saturday, but I’m going Behind the Scenes today to explain why I haven’t been able to steam ahead with the first draft of Book3. I blame Twitter, TV — & Trump. 

It’s been only three weeks since Donald Trump spoke about “American carnage” in his inauguration speech, but the mood of despair and dysfunction which he stirred up continues to linger and makes it difficult to focus on fiction. Editor, author, and blogger, Nathan Bransford summed it up best for me when he wrote : “There’s a lot I’ve been intending to blog about recently […] But then I read the news or go on my social feeds and writing seems like the last thing on anyone’s mind. And, in a way, the things I want to write about feel so trivial in comparison to the news of the day.” Continue reading “Hey Donald! You’re Draining Me, Not the Swamp (Behind the Scenes #5)”

Getting Into The Holiday Spirit with The Palm Beach Writers Group

It’s News Squib Saturday — but instead of posting News Squib#14, I’m taking a break from the news (both real and fake) this week to share some highlights and tips from writers with whom I got together last night at the Leopard Lounge, in The Chesterfield, a historic landmark in Palm Beach.

 

 

Swanky

The Leopard Lounge, once described by a Palm Beach Post reporter as the kind of  “dark and swanky” bar that “Don Draper might have taken a paramour during Mad Men‘s first season,” was the location for a holiday gathering of some 35 writers and editors last night. The evening was organized by Cathy (Kat) Helowicz, (aka Hostess with the Mostest) and author of a children’s book,  On Grandpop’s Lap. She is in the middle of writing her first novel for adults, and told me she recently enrolled in author James Patterson’s MasterClass, a series of 22 video lessons on how to write a best-seller. Continue reading “Getting Into The Holiday Spirit with The Palm Beach Writers Group”

News Squib#13 – My Run-In With Big Oil

It’s Squib Saturday. Time to share the best, most interesting (or most entertaining, or most outrageous) tidbit of information I’ve gleaned from all the stuff I’ve read –or done– this week. TodayDuking It Out With the Biggest Heating Oil Company on Long Island 

Every so often I have to get “into the ring” with the company that has been supplying my heating oil for the last eight years.  It goes like this: The company delivers my heating oil on automatic delivery. The driver of the truck leaves a printed receipt on my front door knob. I immediately look at the price charged per gallon;

I log onto Nyserda.gov ( the New York State agency that provides energy information including the month-by-month average price of heating oil throughout the state.)  I then compare the average price on Long Island with the price the heating oil company has charged me. I fall off my chair. I pick myself up.  I call customer service. Continue reading “News Squib#13 – My Run-In With Big Oil”