Back when we worked nearly 24/7 to make a living, my husband and I managed to make a few getaways on his motorcycle, a sparkling red Honda Goldwing. For a two-wheeler, it was a stout and sturdy machine, weighing in, fully packed, at around nine hundred pounds. Once, at a gas station, when we pulled […]
by Gay Yellen I was a shy child who spent a lot of time reading. At twelve, I fell in love with Shakespeare. I dove deep into the leather-bound tomes that lived on a bookshelf in our den. Comedies, tragedies, history plays. They fascinated me. My favorite was Romeo and Juliet. I read Juliet’s […]
I read somewhere that clutter is a physical manifestation of unmade decisions, and what creates our clutter is procrastination. I know. There’s proof of it right inside my front door. Welcome to my living room. There’s a reason why it resembles the loading dock at your neighborhood Goodwill. After months on the market, I received an […]
by Gay Yellen Once upon a time, I had a comfortably introverted life. That all changed in 2014, when my first book came out, and my publisher urged me to join the rest of the world on Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms. Facebook At first, it was tough to emerge from my cocoon, but […]
Yesterday, I cleared out my mother’s last storage space, and now a dozen boxes and the same number of overflowing paper sacks are stacked three deep in my living room, which now resembles the local Goodwill store. I’ve given away half the stuff, but the things that slowed me down are choosing the special items […]
I am writing this from my hotel room in New Orleans, under the spell of memories from the past. In this city, where I spent three of my four college years, my visit has filled me with nostalgia and a sudden sharp awareness of unintended consequences. Barely a month into my freshman year, I […]
Today, I interview our own Stiletto Gang-sister, Kathryn Lane, award-winning author of the Nikki Garcia Mysteries. Missing in Miami, her fourth book in the series, has just been released. Kathryn is a woman of many parts: artist, writer, and former international corporate executive, all of which provides rich background for her stories. What is it like to […]
How do you describe what writing a novel is like? Here’s E.L. Doctorow’s version: Some say writing is similar to riding a bike: you start out slow and wobbly, but then you get the hang of it. I take issue with that one. Writing my first book was a breeze compared to my third. So […]
Does your car have a name? One that captures its true personality? I’ve named some of mine. After all, boats get names. Why not cars? By my mid-twenties, I’d already owned two really fun cars: an azure blue Impala convertible and a Corvette Stingray. They were so cool, they didn’t need any other identity. But […]
December is so jam-packed with festivals and holidays, you’d think that whoever creates those random observances like Eat a Red Apple Day or Chocolate Cake Day would choose a less hectic time to shine the spotlight on reading. As we hustle and bustle our way through the waning days of the year, how much time […]