It’s funny how folks who work at home (writers, painters, composers, phone-sex workers, though not those who use Skype visuals) will so often use “working in my pajamas! as their number one perk. But is it really true? Is it still true when you realize, as you hear the truck coming down the road, that … Read more
I’ve worked with men who battered their wives, their girlfriends, their sisters, and sometimes their mothers. For almost ten years, I listened to their stories as they admitted bullying, hitting, smacking, punching, and breaking bones. Some had murdered. When asked where their children were during these incidents, almost all answered the same way: they … Read more
What makes you buy a book? Is it different from what makes you watch a movie? Pick a television show? It seems so, because it’s so private—just you and the bookseller or librarian…or, these days, as likely, your computer. Do you try it on like a dress (like reading the first few pages,) or do … Read more
“Wondering how many powerful and heartbreaking novels would not have been written if there were no dysfunctional families.” Kris The above was the Facebook ‘status’ of a dear friend (in real life and Facebook.) An artist of many genres, she’s one of the very best and constant readers I know. I do believe Kris could … Read more
Whatever his politics, and I am certain we’d disagree far more than agree, I bless Senator Scott Brown for revealing the sexual and physical abuse he suffered as a child. What could be a more compelling argument for being truthful about abuse suffered than the fact that so many of us hide the pain others … Read more