One of the truest phrases in the English language is “words fail me.” I use that phrase often when I speak about our 45th president. But politics aside, words do sometimes fail us. Life is too amazing, too deep, too happy, or too sad to be contained by words. Nonetheless, we hum
It’s uncivil of me, I suppose, to pick another quarrel with Amazon. After all, for the past week, the company has been running ads for my book, Heart Land, without a request or payment from me. In fact, that they’re running the ad in tandem The Ninth Hour is flattering. Of cours
Who doesn’t like a good fairytale? Few. I suppose that’s why when Jeff Bezos sent me an email announcing my four novels could be translated into foreign languages for free, a smile crept across my face. Long years have taught me it’s best to keep my hands in my pocket whenev
During my blog hiatus, so many news items begged for comment, I kept salivating, like one of Pavlov’s dogs. Sticking to a memoir about my foreign travels in the 1960s took discipline. I’m glad I did. I found I had much to learn. For a start, memoirs are out of fashion. The new g
You could read the newspaper clipping as a feminist version of Good Will Hunting. After a long day at her job as a Janitor at Trinity College in Ireland, Caitríona Ms. Lally arrived home and, while calming her fretting infant, picked up her phone to hear a stunning announcement.
I wrote yesterday of my respect for clear writing, and how often I drowned in the words of clever writers. No sooner had I put down one edition of Harper’s and took up another than I discovered myself gasping for air a second time. The new essay was written by Will Self, an auth
If you’ve returned to this blog page more than once, congratulations. You’re an intelligent reader. At least, that’s what my computer’s editor says. When I compose, I’m forever being red flagged for sentences that are too long and paragraphs that are too complex. So
Despite the high critical praise he receives, I’ve always felt Ernest Hemingway was an overrated writer. Maybe his chauvinistic sweat offends me. That shouldn’t be a reason for shunning his art, of course, but it does explain why his female characters are so flat and docile
The saying is, “opposites attract.” It’s true for me when I meet someone who is talented yet self-effacing. By contrast, I’m all bangles, spangles and show-biz beads. Lemme hear that roar! I suppose growing up as an only child of divorced parents and living in poverty
As an author, I get several invitations a month from my publisher to participate in library and book conventions. They all come with a price tag, some of them reasonable and some of them out of this world. None of my previous publishers presented me with this “opportunity,” so