I had a mini-crisis — of courage/honesty/boldness, etc. —  this week over how to rank books by friends and clients on Goodreads.com.   The way it works:  on this site, people give stars to books they've read , ratings which can work as recommendations or warnings for other readers of similar tastes.  One star means "didn't […] Read More

One notably bold move in my recent Costa Rican adventure:     My guide on a wildlife-watching river float pulled over to shore, leaped onto the bank, thrashed around in the more than knee-deep lush green tangle, and came back to the raft holding a poison dart frog.  These brilliant little creatures are actually poison to touch.  It's not just a […] Read More

What are the holidays like when you're celebrating with someone who is severely disabled?   How do you shop for someone who can use very little? My friend, Lena Rivkin, a visual artist and graphologist in LA, knows a lot about this situation.  "When you have a sibling who cannot speak, make direct eye contact or […] Read More

Fresh out of the Costa Rican rainforest, I have a new take on the idea that life is a jungle. I'm now seeing it as a positive. Jungles (a word I use pretty much interchangeably with rainforest) are full of extravagant, gorgeous life. Plants in the tropical rainforest grow enormous in the effort to catch […] Read More

Off for a bit of volcano watching in the mountains of northern Costa Rica.  The promo for the little hotel says that every room looks out on the live Arenal volcano and that lava glows up there in the night.  Can't wait.  I may be hard to reach for a few days.  Read More

  Bold or simply silly?  Jumping a yellow Police Line Do Not Cross tape to get this shot of Colin Firth making a movie six blocks from  my office. What do you think?   For truly fabulous photos of the occasion, visit Raleigh Record for Karen Tam's shots. Read More

Vortex hunting is a tricky business.  I dashed around downtown Asheville, NC, Saturday afternoon asking directions to one of these ancient New Age phenoms.  I didn't find one that day, though I did hear a wonderful account by the man behind the counter at Gaea Gifts about hiking to a vortex site near Boone, NC, sitting between the water and the […] Read More

A few of us here in the NC mountains had planned a 7-mile hike today along the bank of the French Broad River.  But it rained.  Some folks went out in the afternoon for an abbreviated version.  The rest of us worked.  Seems like two or maybe three weeks since we arrived.  Life has settled into a […] Read More

[youtube n8dse-JTg8M no link] Tonight we, four of the writers of this week's retreat at Doe Branch Ink, took the meandering dirt road down the mountain to the main drag of Marshall, NC, where on Thursdays nights at Zuma Coffee there is a weekly bluegrass jam session.   By 7 p.m. ten musicians had assembled — with fiddles, banjos, guitars, a bass […] Read More

Tired. Though I have no good excuse.  Midweek at this one-week writers retreat in the North Carolina mountains: and today I slept quite late, did a little writing and email, took a small hike along a high ridge and down to the creek called Doe Branch, had one-to-one meetings witn two of the writers here, […] Read More