To be a writer is to court two things: a) rejection and b) people who want to sell you promotion services. As sure as dead bodies attract blow flies, both encounters are inescapable.  Believe me, no one knows a sure way to shatter the glass barrier between wannabe authors and top sel

I have seen the future and it’s scary. Not only is NSA monitoring us but so are electronic gadgets. If we let them, they’ll control our lives, telling us it’s time for our valium, nagging us to exercise more or alerting us to some advertising special we might have missed. (“El

Writer Kathryn Schulz was prepared to hate Twitter and the other social networks her agent assured her she must use to promote her book, Being Wrong. But in the end, she fell in love with the “bird.” Being limited to 140 characters per entry, Twitter forced her to sharpen her word

I’ve moaned so much about electronic devices, I’m beginning to bore myself. (See blogs 11/14/13 & 12/23/13 for examples.) Imagine, then, my surprise when I learned about two developments I actually would welcome. The first is the driverless car. I’ve heard talk of it for a c

Normally, I don’t post petitions on my Facebook page. People know how to find causes they support without my help. But recently, I made an exception: a petition to Congress to pass the unemployment extension. As a child, I remember how important unemployment checks were to my mother

In my blog of January 20, I speculated on the pluses and minuses of attempting to preserve every little jot and squiggle we have decided to honor as great art. If Shakespeare had been denied his hour to strut and fret upon the stage, I wrote, would the stars twinkle less brightly? The

Susan Stoner, author of the Sage Adair Historical Mystery Series and I were browsing through in a large, three-storied bookstore the other day when suddenly my friend paused and, looking down the aisle at the floor to ceiling shelves, uttered a deep sigh. “Gosh, there are a lot of b

Ever wonder where all the masterminds of the mortgage and derivative debacle have gone? According to Mother Jones, they’re lurking in the electric utility business. (“Out Front, Electric Shadyland,” by Stephanie Mencimer, Mother Jones, January/February, 2014 pgs. 5-10.) Under ne

A friend sent me an announcement for a memoir contest sponsored by the Huffington Post and AOL. Top prize is a book contract with a major publishing house and $5,000. My friend knew I’d been thinking of writing a memoir about my four years abroad, first in England and Europe and the

While Edward Snowden cools his heels in the Russian winter, the world continues its heated debate on the good or ill he accomplished when he released volumes of information about NSA’s data mining. Few in this country are coming to the young man’s defense, though foreign leaders h