Corona and Social Distancing: Should we Change How we Live? Or, Live to Make Change?

This is a wacky new normal.  NYC is in a state of disorientation of fear and alert, with untold casualties. For me it echoes Hurricane Sandy, where the streets were empty; people stumbling along like zombies in the afflicted areas, yet in some unaffected pockets, life went on as usual.  My husband and friends, a community from […]

My To-Do-List / 2019

…and probably 2018 too. It’s been awhile since I posted my happenings, and so when I revisited my journal of things I wanted to accomplish, along with the scratched out items of things I would probably never get around to (my “Shit I’ll Never Do List”) I arrived at a semi-clear list that encapsulates both: […]

To 2017, and the Festival of Lights

2017 began with a big stinking thud, where many of our fears of what the year was to bring unfurled before us, where those fears materialized into realities. It was a year of tragic loss of life with mass shootings, hurricanes, fires, political unrest, distrust, where ugly secrets and heinous abuses against women were revealed. […]

Our Lives, Our Selves: On Integrating Multiple Personas

Ten years ago, I departed from a different life, a different “me.”  Sometimes I am struck with a shock of dislocation and ask myself, who was that woman, that girl, living in a house in Hollywood, driving to pitch meetings, developing screenplays with my screenwriting partner who was also my husband, who I met in […]

Instead of Labor on Labor Day, I Got Something Else

A week ago, Labor Day weekend beckoned happily. Four days off with no work intrusions, where I could focus on a new writing project; a TV show that I am developing ala Cougel. I needed to make a dent in the TV pilot script – a format that is different than book writing, as it’s […]

When a Good Jewish Girl celebrates Eastover

Of all the Jewish holidays, Passover, steeped in tradition, song, and food, has always been the most fun. Our regular kitchen was closed for the week, and we had a special ‘Kosher for Passover’ kitchen in our basement where we would convene around a long table with extended family and friends, surrounded by seventies furniture […]

To Everything, A Season

I’m on a plane again. Last week, I flew to Chicago and then Indianapolis in 48 hours, where it was 1 and 8 degrees respectively. Today, I’m en route to LA, where it’s 60 degrees and rainy.  I’m a weather snob. The cold makes me mad; impatient, unmotivated, but worse, it makes me desperate for […]

Enough Fun!

When I was a pre-teen, like most kids, I wanted to have fun. This meant movies, sleepovers, or parties at friend’s houses. But I had to get permission from my mother first, who was always pretty cool about it unless it was too many consecutive nights in a row. As follows (in Heblish): “Mom, can […]

My Year in Memoir.

Like many of you, I’ve been reflecting on the past year and trying to identify the meaningful happenings that define it, but the checklist is eluding me. The pervasive lists out there and essays with titles like “Top Ten Best of 2014 “ or “Five Things to be Grateful for” tempted me to put together […]

A Writer's Retreat into Beauty

About two months ago, a writer named Dani Shapiro who I admire and whose spiritual memoir, Devotion, inspired me to write mine, posted on Twitter that she was going to be teaching a writing seminar based on her latest book, Still Writing, at the Kripalu Center in the Berkshires. I had never heard of Kripalu, […]