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Join Me for Two Dickens Events this Holiday Season
It’s not often you get to attend Dickens-related events, but how wonderful to have two upcoming events within a week of each other! I’m certain these will put us in the Christmas spirit! (And the way the world is at the moment, we need a little Christmas!) My husband and I will be wearing our Dickens-era costumes, and we’re looking forward to meeting people who share our enthusiasm for the season. A DICKENS OF A CHRISTMAS, Sat, Dec 4 CHESTERTOWN, MD, In Chestertown where the slogan is Party like it’s 1843, I’ll be signing and selling books at “A Dickens of a Christmas” on Saturday, December 4, from 10 a.m.…
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Why I Wrote From Humbug to Humble about Ebenezer Scrooge and Upcoming Events
Here is a video that tells you more about my new novella, From Humbug to Humble: The Transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge. The novella is available on Amazon.com, BN.com and exclusively at my local bookstore, Park Books & Literacy Lab. I will also be (along with my husband in Dickens-era costumes) at the annual A Dickens of A Christmas in Chestertown, MD on December 4 in London Row from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. selling my books and handmade book pages wreaths. Hope to see you there! Stephanie
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What the Dickens? Book Launch Next Week
Next week, my newest novella entitled FROM HUMBUG TO HUMBLE, will launch! I’m very excited to share this book with you. It was a true labor of love, and I think I’ve been in the Christmas Spirit since the summer when I began this undertaking. The truth is, I’ve loved Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol since I was a little girl. The story of a man being haunted by ghosts in order to warn him about his place among humanity and save him from his selfish ways is one of literature’s most renowned stories. That love of Ebenezer Scrooge and A Christmas Carol led me to fill in the blanks…
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A Post-Christmas Letter
Dear Readers, It’s January 2, and I haven’t blogged since Christmas. I hope you had a great holiday season and that your New Year is off to a tremendous start. It’s not that I didn’t want to blog, it’s just that I didn’t make time for it, if I’m being completely honest. I committed myself to the 2017 holiday season fully; I did almost everything I wanted to do, and most of it revolved around spending time with my family. Minus the mad rush of finishing up teaching my college classes, scoring students, and reading endless amounts of papers and reflections (which is all great in itself, but it gets…
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Dickens Is Missing
I’ll make this one short and sweet. Where the hell is Dickens? My son is now a senior in high school, and all this time I’ve been waiting with anticipation each year to see which books have been selected for the high school English classes for the year. I am sad to report that now, for four straight years, we’ve had no Dickens on the list. I’m not a fan of Common Core, but I am a fan of Dickens. When I was in high school, I read Great Expectations. I read A Christmas Carol on my own. Now, Dickens’ novels are missing from high school reading lists. When I…
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Friday Fiction | She Said, I Know What It’s Like To Be Dead
If you love the classic story of A Christmas Carol featuring Ebenezer Scrooge like I do, I hope you’ll be amused by today’s Friday Fiction. I honestly can’t remember the last time I posted a short piece of fiction. I haven’t written flash fiction is so long. Today, I’ve attempted to write a short fictional story using a prompt from Brian Kiteley’s book, The 3 A.M. Epiphany. If you are a writer, and you don’t have Brian’s book, you should get it along with the sequel, The 4 A.M. Epiphany; they both contain writing prompts to get you thinking—and writing. I worked hard this summer to finish my third novel,…
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Books That Make You Cry
About two months ago, on a nice day in March, I sat on my back porch and cried my eyes out as I finished Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. My friend, Shawna, and I were talking about both the novel and the upcoming movie on Saturday at the pool. She hated feeling so sad at the end of the story, and I didn’t mind it; she also doesn’t want to see the movie, and I get that. It is terribly tragic, but it’s also so touching. I’m ready to face it in the theatre with a box of Kleenex. I’ve been waiting a couple of months to see how…
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Seriously. What Have I Been Missing?
I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner. As a reader and writer of stories, as one who loves live theatre and movies on screen, as one who enjoys hearing a compelling story…what the heck has taken me so long to “read” in the car? Seriously, audiobooks are making my life even more enjoyable than it already is. Because of my commute to work, which extended by about 10-15 minutes when my family and I moved last year (by our choice), I spend a bit more time in the car. At a gathering of our Book Club, someone asked when I find time to read. “I don’t,” I…
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The Case for the Wonderful Christmas Scrooge
“Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world.” — Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol *** It’s about that time. I will get out my treasured copy of Dickens’s novel “A Christmas Carol,” as well as my two favorite copies of films depicting one of my all-time favorite characters: Ebenezer Scrooge. (The George C. Scott version of “A…
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Philadelphia & Charles Dickens
*** Yesterday, my family and I took the trip to Philadelphia. Our first stop included touring Independence Hall and stopping by to see The Liberty Bell. It was the first time my children had visited, and I was so pleased that they enjoyed seeing perhaps the most historic room in all of America—the place where our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. It’s difficult not to get chills in that room. After lunch at Campo’s, where we ate some noteworthy Philadelphia cheesesteaks, we made our way to the Philadelphia Free Library on Vine Street. It was a gorgeous day and I was particularly excited to see the exhibition on…
