Context reading

You know the term context drinking, don’t you? Ever noticed how that bottle of wine you share on a sun-drenched table perched on the cobblestone square of a charming little town in Tuscany or Provence tastes ever so much better than the same bottle you bring back home to drink in Peoria? True, isn’t it?…

Read More

Snow Day in Rome!

Today – Monday, 6 February 2012 – is actually only the second official Snow Day in history for Roman schoolchildren. The first was way back on Friday, 3 February 2012. Yes, Roman children had the unusual pleasure of listening to the Mayor of Rome declare a long weekend due to snow. Snow rarely falls on…

Read More

It takes a village to write a book

Yes, yes, we all know the old mantra that writing is a lonely profession. But is reviewing and editing lonely, too? Does it have to be? I’m pretty new to this, and I was slogging along on my own, but I recently joined a writing group in my city. I had seen an announcement for…

Read More

Matera Women’s Fiction Festival

This past September, I signed up for my first writer’s conference. It was the easiest decision to make once I discovered the destination – the beautiful city of Matera, in Italy’s southern region of Basilicata. I had been to Matera over a decade ago, with my Italian husband who looked at me oddly when I…

Read More