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How Brene Brown’s research influenced my novel
Over the last few years, I’ve become enamored with Brené Brown’s research, specifically with regard to empathy, vulnerability, and shame. On campus, I’ve executed workshops about Brown’s wonderful book, Dare to Lead. If you haven’t read this book, I strongly urge you hop to it. It’s a wonderful dissection about daring leadership, and what factors play into what kind of leaders we admire and what kind of leader we, ourselves, want to be. In the course of preparing to teach others about Brown’s findings, many of her assessments were illuminating, and as I began to figure out what my next novel was going to tackle, I landed on all three…
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Iberostar Grand Bavaro: A Truly Memorable Place
Close your eyes and imagine a place filled with sunshine, palm trees, and a stiff breeze off the ocean. Imagine an elegant and meticulously kept resort replete with a slew of activities, and you’ll find yourself at the Iberostar Grand Bavaro Resort in the Dominican Republic (DR). It was a like a dream come true. Allow me to tell you why. Let me count the ways… One—from Baltimore, we were lucky to have a direct flight to the DR. These days, with flight cancellations abounding, it was nice to know that in under four hours we would arrive. Once the plane touched down, it was relatively easy to find a…
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The Process of Getting to a Book Cover
My newest novel, The Letters in the Books, is just weeks away from launching. I’m super excited about this one, as it was two full years in the making. Writing is a labor of love for me, and I just want to tell a compelling, yet sweet story that’s perfect for a beach read. This book was heavily influenced by Brené Brown’s research on empathy and shame. I have read her books and watched her TedTalks a million times. Her work on empathy and vulnerability in particular are interesting and worthy of your time. I tried my best to roll her findings into Meg, the empath and bookstore owner at…
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On the Eve of My Son’s College Graduation…
Well, the day has come. Our first-born child, Matthew, will be graduating from college tomorrow, so if you’ll permit me, I’d like to reminisce for a few moments. (You can also pass me a tissue…) So many of us are at this point in our lives. They always tell us that time marches on and waits for no one and to enjoy every moment you can. And yet, here we find ourselves embarking on a new chapter in our lives. We have raised kids and are beginning to (or some of you already have) send them off into the world. As I see my friends on Facebook posting graduation photographs,…
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After Two Years, We Almost Have Lift Off
What is the process you go through to publish a novel? I'm sharing mine. Warning: there are a lot of steps.
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Friday Fodder: My Obsession with Letters & Journals
If you’ve been following my blog for a while, first, THANK YOU. Second, you may have read previous posts about writing letters and letter writing, because I’m obsessed with the notion of letter writing. And, you’ve probably also read many posts here about keeping a journal, most recently the one I wrote about keeping a journal during a pandemic. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Are you going to print out a text feed or email chain and save it in your memory box? The likelihood of that is slim to none. The lost art of letter writing is truly a loss of records. When someone takes…
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Lots of News & Updates to Share :-)
Hello, my friends. I hope you are all well. I know it’s been a while, and I apologize for that. I also apologize that my podcasts have stalled. They will be back, but the semester has gotten the better of me. Three more weeks, and we can close the books on the Spring 2022 semester! I know the students are happy. Because I’ve been absent for so long, I have a lot of cool news to share with you today! First, I was honored to receive the Distinguished Teaching Fellow Award at the Eastern Communication Association Annual Convention! It was such an honor to represent Stevenson University, and I was…
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Why I Stopped Having Oscar Parties
This could be the shortest post in the world, or the longest, but for your sake, I’ll make it as succinct as possible. I stopped having Oscar parties because I stopped caring about Hollywood. That’s it. That’s the truth. I no longer cared, after being that person who cared a lot and was a film lover. Other things took over my life, namely my family, my job, my writing, and the occasional bit of travel we could fit into the mix. Don’t get me wrong, I still watch movies, I just don’t care to “hear” too much from celebs. Sometimes when I know too much about a celebrity or their…
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My Favorite Villain
The other day in class, one of my students told me that he decided to re-watch Game of Thrones. We’ve talked about this show before in class. He then told me which characters he would like to play in the show, if he ever had the opportunity. Of course, he picked some of the good guys. He almost fell out of his chair when I told him that I would want to play Cersei Lannister. “She’s my favorite character on the show.” “You’re kidding! She’s so bad!” he exclaimed, wide-eyed and surprised. “I know. Wouldn’t it be fun to play someone like that? She’s just so darn rotten.” And she…
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Watch Your Step, Distracted Walking Can Cause an Injury
Yesterday on my ride to work, I learned some startling statistics about distracted walking. The ironic part of the study are the statistics, that go something like this: In the United States, 78% of adults believe that distracted walking is a “serious” issue. But the humorous part is that they believe it’s the “other people” who are committing this hazard. Only 29% of those polled said that they, themselves, do it, too. From AAOS.ORG Additionally, 4 out of 10 people say they have watched a distracted walking incident happen, and 26% of people admit to having been in a walking accident themselves. Truthfully, this is no laughing matter. In fact,…
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Sunday Positive Thoughts (Post The Chosen)
It’s been nice to hear that many of you were inspired by my recent post about how moved I was by the The Chosen, a series about the life of Jesus Christ from the perspective of his disciples. I’m so glad that you have decided to watch it. Certainly, with what is happening in Ukraine right now, combined with it being the Catholic Lenten Season, as I often say out loud, we could all use some of Jesus’s teachings of kindness and love right about now. Additionally, instead of giving something up for Lent, I decided to focus on doing positive things. The first is that I downloaded the Hallow…
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Podcast 5: What I’ve Learned From Reading Other Authors
The Podcast: The Transcript: When I was a child, my mother says I was always on the move and didn’t really have the patience to sit and read a book. I would read, but as I moved into my teenage years, other things were occupying my time, and reading wasn’t one of those things. Fast forward to high school and Ms. Susek and my creative writing class I took. It was the one class I could really sink my teeth into. I loved that class, and it fostered a love of creative writing that I still hold today. As you heard in last week’s podcast, I went back to school…
