Catatonic in Southern California

I’ve been blogging about serious stuff lately, so now let’s have some fun. It’s election season and I will not talk about elected officials. Instead I want to talk about the “good old days” when I first went to work for a small city in Southern California, a city that shall remain nameless. I was … Read more

Curing Imposter Syndrome

Last week I talked about imposter syndrome, the feeling some of us get when we’re successful, but don’t really think we deserve it. I also said there’s a cure, but it isn’t an easy one. Dr. Valerie Young, addressing three thousand writers at the Romance Writers of America convention in July, told us to first, … Read more

Imposter Syndrome is Alive and Well

Today I’m talking about “imposter syndrome.” It might be a tad dry and you probably won’t like it so you can delete this post right now. That, my friends, is “imposter syndrome.” Imposter syndrome is when you make excuses in your head in advance why something isn’t good enough, why you aren’t good enough, why … Read more

Minor Irritations in Grocery Stores

Does grocery shopping irritate you? Maybe I’m the only one. Years ago my spouse (Captain Mark the engineer) decided I needed an aisle-by-aisle grocery list for our local market. Enter the door, turn left toward Produce, then go down each aisle moving clockwise through the store until aisles end at Deli. Then back along the … Read more

Things that Reveal Us

Bookshelves are supposed to be personal, revealing, windows on the book collector’s personality and tastes. Anyone who looks at my bookshelves will immediately think I’m schizophrenic. Who has Stephen King next to Dorothea Benton Frank? Who has Clive Cussler next to William Shakespeare? Who has Nora Roberts next to Beverly Jenkins or Boris Pasternak next … Read more