I’ve been nominated for the Liebster Blog Her Award

An extra big thank you/grazie to my blog buddy and real-life buddy each year in Matera, the talented author Catherine McNamara, for nominating me for the Liebster Blog Her Award. If you don’t yet know Catherine’s work, take a look at my earlier author interviews with her for her novel and short stories. As part of…

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Braving the rain and mud in Paliano, Italy

If it’s early Sunday morning and you run into me in some little town in Lazio wearing running sneakers caked in several  layers of thick mud, chances are I’m accompanying my eight-year-old to one of his state running competitions. My Sunday morning under the pounding rain in pretty Paliano,  was no exception. My son had…

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Brainstorming at the Spa 2014

I’ve heard so many great things about the Brainstorming at the Spa event held each year in Matera, Italy. This year it takes place 4-7 April 2014. This is an event organized by the Women’s Fiction Festival I write so much about, held each year in September in Matera, southern Italy. For the past three…

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More writing inspiration on the slopes

As this post goes out, I’ll be wrapping up a great week with my family out on the ski slopes of Italy’s Abruzzo region. I always look forward to a week-long skiing break (heck, if I could, I’d make it a month-long skiing break), and my kids are avid skiers. I’ve written before on skiing…

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Dinosaur BBQ, New York City

Okay, so Manhattan barbeque joints probably aren’t the first thing to spring to mind for most visitors to New York. But whenever we’re back in New York, my kids insist that we go back to eat at Dinosaur Bar-b-que, a popular Harlem restaurant and Columbia University hangout. Sometimes we eat there, and sometimes we get takeout…

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Important lessons from first-time novelists

The excellent Writers’ Digest web site posted this interesting article on lessons learned by first-time novelists. Five novelists share their experiences along the pathway to publication – discussing their writing lives before their first novel, their submission processes, their experiences with writers conferences, balancing writing and work/family commitments, and what they’d wished they’d known before…

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Shopping in Les Halles market, Toulouse

One of the (many) pleasures of traveling in France is wandering the stalls at the local markets. I’ve already written about some of my favorite markets in France – in the stunning mountain town of Annecy and the Cours Saleya market  of the Riviera coastal city of Nice. If you’re travelling in France, always make time…

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