The question writers are most often asked is: “Where do you get your ideas?” I’ve realized only in recent weeks that there was a moment fifty years ago that contained the germ of every novel I would write. I didn’t recognize it at the time. I discarded it as a random and rather silly thought. […] Read More

Dear Nicholas, I’m staying busy typing here in one of the cancer radiation waiting rooms in Duke’s Raleigh hospital, while Bob finishes  with his second treatment for his second round of prostate cancer. We are assured by all his doctors that he will be fine. Still…   The view from here … well, it’s not […] Read More

Dear Nicholas, I’ve recently entered an exotic youthful world, a culture that is a wonder to me: TikTok. Have you been there? What did you think–or feel? I’m now a TikToker and youthfully groovy again, but like never before. Tiptoeing Onto The Scene I ventured out onto this social media platform because I have a […] Read More

Well, Nicholas, I just learned that I forgot to go to a long-planned lunch-on-a-porch today with four dear friends. I forgot to show up. I am disappointed and berating myself. And of course wondering if I’ve gotten a step flakier than I want to be. This group has been brunching and lunching since the early […] Read More

Dear Nicholas, A curious new kind of personality labeling has evolved out of the world of books and book reviewing. I only just learned about it as I’ve been getting the word out about my own new novel. The trait is your preference in tropes in stories you read.  What is a trope anyway? And […] Read More

Dear Nicholas, It’s the nervous part I want to talk about. My new novel comes out on May 1. As always, I’m afraid hardly anyone will read it, that I’ll stand at a podium for a reading/book signing with a very small audience, made up largely of my husband. So I’m in a mad flurry […] Read More

Dear Nicholas, Some weeks ago, I mentioned that I was taking up Transcendental Meditation and, to make the investment worthwhile, committing to meditating twice a day for a year. Well, I’ve been steadily doing this and the TM is working   I’d been told to expect changes like greater patience (I don’t want more patience, […] Read More

Dear Nicholas, Mid-day today, driving to the grocery store, I hit the wall of an underpass. The sound of metal against concrete and Bob yelling my name woke me. I yanked the car back into the lane and kept going. I’d fallen asleep at the wheel. We were not hurt: the car scraped the middle […] Read More

Dear Nicholas, Feeling wrung out and useless after a two-day (successful) struggle shaking loose yet another scammer, I Googled the words “scam fatigue.” Turns out I’m not the only one who feels done in by this stuff.  The Washington Post says, “Relentless waves of sophisticated phone and online scams are affecting people’s mental health.” The […] Read More

Dear Nicholas, I first ran across the energy-charged word “zowie” in an intriguing new biography of author Kurt Vonnegut. Written by his old friend Dan Wakefield, Kurt Vonnegut: The Making of a Writer has lots of fascinating personal material.  Early in his career Vonnegut had been turned down in his application to teach at Cape […] Read More