Some people are spendthrifts, while others are bargain hunters. I think most of us fall in-between the two poles, making spending decisions that employ our individual, and often peculiar, personal math. The same person may pay a premium for a convenient quart of milk on the way home in order to have time to bargain hunt for an hour to save five dollars on an Internet purchase. The math involved here is the value of time—both the time spent on in front of the computer and the time spent traveling from place-to-place in a car or on foot. The extra
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Deus ex Digital
Lately I’ve become conscious of how technology alters storytelling. Those of us old enough to remember carrying coins to call home from pay phones, taking film to be processed, or pulling the car over to the side of the road to study a map, can’t help but feel the impact of technology in a visceral sense. I remember getting my first answering machine (my outgoing message included a snatch of Asleep at the Wheel’s recording of ‘There Ain’t Nobody Here but Us Chickens’) and realizing that I’d never ‘miss’ a call again. Of course I soon discovered that I’d also
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The Devil Drinks Dark Roast
The aroma of coffee, the hum of Dixieland jazz and the babel of conversations washed over the devil as he opened the door. It took him a moment to focus. “What’s your darkest blend?” “We have a single origin, special drip…” “No,” he rejected the complicated connoisseur daily special. “Just a large cup of a dark roast — black.” “That would be our dark velvet. Are you staying or taking out?” “To stay, yes, to stay.” He sighed. The throb of heartbeats rolled like thunder vibrating under his toes. She gave him a large, white ceramic mug of dark roast
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Taking Photos—Or Not
This has been on my mind lately. For years I’ve carried around notebooks to jot down stray thoughts, make lists to organize tasks, or to make a note about a work of art in a museum exhibit. I’m still carrying a notebook and still jotting notes, but the camera on my phone has begun to replace the third function of my notebooks. It may be too easy, but snap, snap and the work of art is noted; snap, snap and the legend (the accompanying information about the artist or specific work) is captured, too. This is easy, convenient and saves
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Truth is Stranger than Fiction
In the category of truth that is stranger than fiction, I’ve recently learned that over-the-counter anti-diarrhea medications—the kind of thing you’d take when you have a stomach virus or put in your travel kit in case of Montezuma’s revenge—are being used by addicts. According to a New York Times article, opioid addicts unable to get painkillers are resorting to the mild high found in huge doses of the active ingredient— loperamide. A few have died from constipation. I don’t want to think about how painful and disgusting that sounds, but pushed to the brink, there is no telling where people
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The Ruins of St. Sava
I live in a relatively old city in a relatively young country. When New Yorkers speak about a historic building, it could be Fraunces Tavern (where George Washington made his famous farewell speech) or as recent as the late 19th Century. In other words, nothing in New York is old when it’s compared to Leicester, England where Richard III’s bones were recently discovered under a parking lot; Athens, Greece where the Parthenon is still a presence in the city’s daily life; Rome, Italy with layers of historic strata everywhere; and many other places around the world with ancient temples in
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Found Objects
When someone asks, “How do you come up with your ideas?” I never know how to respond. The truth is that I FIND ideas all the time. They are lurking everywhere I go, in everything I see. The seeds of ideas are in newspaper stories, buried in dreams, hidden in works of art, and dancing to music. In March of 2014, I took a class at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) taught by one of the art conservators. It was billed as a “backstage look” at how the museum cares for and conserves works of art. I took the
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Evil Thoughts
In order to write evil characters, I must—at least for short spans of time—entertain evil thoughts. This is trickier than it sounds as I’m basically a nice person and I may be the last person likely to kill, torture, kidnap, steal or con. Do my fictional characters kill, torture, kidnap, steal or con? Yes. But is crime and evil in my nature? No. Sometimes I walk down the street or ride the subway and indulge in, or more accurately, explore dark thoughts more appropriate for my fictional evildoers than for nice, little, old me. What kind of thoughts? Sometimes the
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Frame of Reference
It was one of the first sunny Sundays of spring, so I headed up to the roof of my building with my favorite “go to the roof” kit: something to read (on my Kindle), something to listen to (music and/or podcasts on my phone), a note pad, a pen, and my sunset snack basket with a glass of wine, olives, nuts & a little cheese. In the elevator on my way up to the top/eighth floor of my building, I ran into one of my neighbors. She glanced at my basket and asked: “Are you doing facials?” “Facials? I’m going
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The Alpha Readers Report
I gave the first draft of my novel-in-progress to two alpha readers for their gut reactions. Their reports were very helpful and I’m busy working on draft two with their notes in mind. What did they say? Among other comments, they both wanted to read more descriptive text, the kind that knits things together in a neat picture and reinforces who’s who and in relation to whom. This is not a difficult thing to fix. It means going back through the manuscript and looking for opportunities to DESCRIBE a character’s appearance in detail; where I can flesh out the particulars
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