Blog

Welcome to my Blog

I’ll usually post three times a week. Mondays will be general essay on whatever captures my fancy. I’ll write about writing and editing, about gardening and cooking, about women worth knowing, and other topics. I’m also a science nerd, so you’ll get some of that. I like to write haikus, so you may get a few of those too. Wednesdays will be for the arts: music, books, and whatever else comes to mind. Fridays will be history questions and answers from my books American Trivia and American Trivia Quiz Book. Finally, I’ll suggest links to other blogs and websites that I think might interest you. But be sure to come back here when you’re done though. There’ll be much more here in coming weeks.

BLOG AND WEBSITE RECOMMENDATIONS

My first recommendation is Richard Lederer’s www.verbivore.com . He has a wealth of information on many topics. He’s written more than 50 books on language, humor, and history. To give you just a taste, here’s what he writes as his opening paragraph of his website:

Welcome to the website woven for wordaholics, logolepts, and verbivores. Carnivores eat meat; herbivores eat plants and vegetables; verbivores devour words. If you are heels overhead (as well as head over heels) in love with words, tarry here a while to graze or, perhaps, feast on the English language. Ours is the only language in which you drive in a parkway and park in a driveway and your nose can run and your feet can smell…

If you have any questions about the English language, Richard is your man. You can email your questions to him, and he’ll be glad to give you an answer. You’ll find much of pleasure and of interest at his website. I recommend it to you.

Another of my favorites is Writer’s Almanac. If you sign up, you get a daily email that takes five minutes or less to read. It starts with a poem, sometimes contemporary, sometimes from the past, and continues with snippets of history—mostly about writers. Sign up for the email newsletter.

 

Introduction

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What are the ties that bind together a country as far-reaching and diverse as ours? We are not a people made from a single stock. Rather, we are a medley of colors, races, religions, and ethnicities. You might think our language unites us, but in fact, we have no official language; we speak all the […]

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Music: Bridging the Generation Gap.

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I started this odyssey of finding music I liked on the internet with “Old Movie Stars Dance to Uptown Funk.” Stars from the 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s dance to current music. No matter what your age, this is fun. It might even get you to dance yourself. You’ll see famous dancers: Gene Kelly, Fred […]

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My Immigrant Mom

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All the recent talk about immigrants makes me think about my mother. She married my father and emigrated from England in 1930. She lived in the US, mostly in California, until her death in 1988. She went home to England to visit family on only two occasions. She chose never to become a citizen. When […]

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Why Write?

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I write and I teach writing. If you think I’m going to tell you why I write—not this time. This is about why you should be writing. I don’t often tell others what I think they should do with their lives, but I do feel strongly that we all need to, at least, write memoirs. […]

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What if . . .

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I wrote a post about science fiction and fantasy books that I’ve reviewed, including one called Wandering City Blues by Jonny Lupsha. I liked that book, and I hope to read more by this author. (I’ll add the relevant paragraphs at the end in case you want to glance through them.) * * * After […]

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Setting Writing Goals

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“How much should I be writing?” The answer is, “As much as you want.” Your goals are exactly that, yours. Writing is one of the few endeavors where you get to be totally selfish (unless someone else is paying you for your time.) But true productivity isn’t just measured in number of words or pages. […]

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