What does your Internet search history reveal about you? I do not want to imagine what kind of conclusions someone might draw from my crazy mix of double checking spellings and delving into the macabre, mysterious, weird, artistic, historical, and grammatical questions that pop into my head while I’m writing fiction and freelance projects. Sometimes I’m just checking the New York City subway map or confirming the opening date of a museum exhibit, but my multiple searches for reminders about how to take a screenshot and how to spell Toulouse-Lautrec (for a client’s project) make me seem like a dunderhead.
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Tall Tales
I’m short. There, I’ve said it. I have a bunch of tall friends and, in the interest of understanding the issues related to HEIGHT (as opposed to the issues related to the lack there of) I pay attention to their descriptions of TALL problems. From my perspective, way down here, the problems inherent in being ABLE to reach the top shelf seem trivial, but there are real issues: beds that are too short, knees pressed up to chests in economy airplane seats, pants that fit at the waist but hover above the ankle, and heads bumping into low ceilings. As
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Describing Tastes and Aromas
The red wine tastes like plums and raspberries, with tobacco or cherry cola. The white is all green apples and apricots with hint of a pineapple buzz that’s reminiscent of grapefruit soda on the backend, or it’s smoke, oak, and quartz, with an acidic finish. A perfume smells like old roses and lime leaves—or maybe it’s more like lilacs and lemongrass? Writing descriptions of aromas and tastes is tricky because our individual perceptions vary widely. Pour two glasses of white wine from the same bottle and one person will say it tastes like granny smith apples and the other will
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Ideal Bodies and Time
The ideal body changes as time & fashion evolve—and different cultures prize specific looks above all others. It’s easy to look back centuries and laugh at the variety of body shapes and sizes that where considered in a positive light, but some of it’s not so funny and, in my humble opinion, some of the criteria of 21st century America could use some tweaking. Think about a middle aged man, comfortable with his big belly, as evidence of his prosperity in a time & place of food insecurity; the sensuous flesh of a curvy, Peter Paul Rubens model; the slender,
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Off Label Rx and Mistaken Conclusions
How many times have you read, or seen, a fictional detective look at the prescription medications stored in a cabinet and draw specific conclusions about a crime victim, suspect, or missing person? This is a common clue to the physical, mental, or emotional status of a mysterious character. The detective may discover cancer medications and an excess of prescription painkillers—leading to one set of conclusions. If the detective finds a shelf in the kitchen devoted to over-the-counter allergy drugs and refills for a prescription inhaler, there’s another definitive conclusion. And when they find anxiety and depression meds, there’s an entirely
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Talking Animals
I talk to my cat. I figure that as long as he doesn’t answer with more than a purr, yowl, or mew we’re OK. I talk. He ignores me or appears to listen, in accordance with his own assessment of my words or his mood. I don’t take his responses seriously. Again, the moment I start to take his reactions to heart, I’ll be due for some serious soul searching. Talking animals and talking to animals are common motifs in literature. This is not solely the province of children’s stories. It happens in fables, and some books aimed squarely at
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Playing Dress Up
Some actors put on a costume to get into character and children play dress up to explore being all sorts of people—from fairy tales princesses to sturdy adventurers. I have a photo of myself pretending to be a mountain climber. I took a baby doll sized stroller and strapped the frame around my shoulders. My teddy bear peeks out from inside the jerry-rigged backpack, and I’m holding a jump rope. I was about four and mountaineering in the living room! I’m sure that some writers dress to get into the right mood to write about a particular character. I’ve yet
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Death in a Man Cave
The widow was so distraught that she had to be sedated. I didn’t get to question her until the following day. She was still fragile and teary, leaning on the broad shoulders of her late husband’s best friend. Even then, he did most of the talking. “We heard the gun shot and both of us went running. I tried the door and it was locked from the inside, so I busted it down and we found him in his easy chair.” Ben, the best friend and army buddy of the diseased, spoke with the grim authority of a seasoned military
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Old Photos
For a few months after my mother’s death, I found myself swimming in old photographs. After spending hours each day sorting them on the dining room table of my late parent’s apartment, I finally brought shopping bags of photos home and finished sorting them in a less fraught environment. This is not to say that it became an easy task. It just became less difficult. I now have a series of neat boxes to cull through again at another time. I’ve also sent several boxes and oversized envelopes to relatives. Old photos are poignant storytellers. Some are mysteries: Was Grandpa
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Power & Words
Words are powerful. I’m not saying that just because I’m a writer. I believe that words are powerful and that the way powerful people use words has a tremendous influence on what we think and how we express ourselves. I’m about to push myself out on a limb, but I’m upset about the word choices of the new president of the United States. Setting aside antagonistic politics, ethical questions, culture wars, differing priorities, and all of the many things that divide people into angry factions, I want to talk about how the WORDS used by the 45th president of the
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