Welcome to my site…
After earning my MFA in creative writing, I began a career in writing and publishing. I’ve been an editor and writer for reference book and education publishers, including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Scholastic Press, and National Geographic Learning. I’ve written professional profiles and articles for MIT and Radcliffe, as well as graphic novelizations of Greek myths.
On this site I offer observations and links to things I’m reading, hearing, and seeing, as well as to what I’m cooking! as I work on a novel set in Cornwall and London in the 1930s. Current tagline: A house with a history. A woman with a future. Two nations on the brink.
I hope you’ll join me here from time to time, Please comment on my posts!
What I’m Reading
Maxine Kumin: Prolific Poet, Feisty Feminist
Maxine Kumin (1925–2014) seems to be little known today, but she won major awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and many honorary degrees. Kumin served as poetry consultant to the Library of Congress (a position now known as Poet...
Making Sense of Leonard Woolf’s “Three Jews”
While researching the atmosphere of Britain in the interwar years, I learned that the first book printed by Leonard and Virginia Woolf's Hogarth Press, Two Stories, included one by each of the husband-and-wife team. Leonard's was titled "Three Jews." Since I'm trying...
May Sinclair—A Forgotten Writer
She was a best-selling writer in her day. The toast of the town, who had a Rolls Royce and a driver. Yet she died lonely and forgotten. I discuss her career and her insights in this article in Literary Ladies Guide.
What I’m Seeing and Hearing
The Yiddish Book Center
A trip to Amherst, Mass., allowed us to visit the Yiddish Book Center this afternoon. I remember seeing signs for this place when I lived in Amherst in the early 1980s. My impression was that it was then nothing more than an old barn filled with books written in...
Moby Dick in under 3 1/2 hours!
An astonishing, delightful, and moving adaptation of Moby Dick kept me fascinated for nearly three and a half hours at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA the other night. The set and props range from the elegant to the primitive. Having read the novel...
Sorry to Bother You–but you need to see this movie.
So I FINALLY got to see Sorry to Bother You. I tried a while ago and it was sold out the night I went, but I wish I'd made it so I could go again. This is a brilliant film and if you haven't seen it yet and still can, you should. It's a remarkable combination of...
What I’m Cooking
May 30, 2021: Lentil Soup & Salad
It was unseasonably chilly here in eastern Massachusetts over Memorial Day weekend, so last night I made lentil soup by sauteeing an onion on medium in Instant Pot, along with half a red pepper and four julienned carrots in 2 tsps of olive oil. Sauteeing on medium for...
May 29, 2021: Farro, Greens, and Cauliflower
I recently had dinner with my friend Nancy. Farro and salad. Was it so satisfying because of the food or the conversation? I'm not sure. Honestly I had forgotten about farro--my husband tells me I used to make it, but then I stopped from some reason. Was it because I...
Sometimes the best meal
is a simple broccoli and cheese frittata (or omelet) and a green salad with a homemade olive oil, sherry vinegar, honey, and garlic dressing.
What I’m Thinking
To boost creativity, create a schedule.
James Clear is a source of many smart ideas about productivity, habit formation, and personal change. The Myth of Creative Inspiration: Great Artists Don't Wait for Motivation The work of top creatives isn’t dependent upon motivation or creative inspiration. Rather,...
Why I Like to Travel This article, written for writers, also conveys the thrill of any kind of travel to an unfamiliar place.
A New Word for That Feeling When Travel Makes Everything New - aeon - Pocket There is, of course, so much to learn when any of us visit a place for the first time and it would be easy to assume that information passes in one direction only, from the host nation to its...
My son was mugged while we were on the phone. Here's what happened next.
https://writinginawomansvoice.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-call-apersonal-essay-by-lynneweiss.html The Call A Personal Essay by Lynne Weiss Shortly before my son began his first semester of college in New York City in 2011, we used our family cell phone plan to get our...
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