Fiction Writers Get to Play Pretend

Even as a kid, I loved reading the newspaper, especially the advice columns. The problems people wrote about fascinated me—cheating husbands, in-laws from hell, warring siblings. Long before there was reality television, there was Ann Landers. Half the fun was in reading her salty responses to the letters she received. Not surprisingly, “advice columnist” landed…

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Losing My Mom

My mother’s sister Margaret dropped dead at 84. She was feeding her cat. At the time, I didn’t appreciate what a terrific way to go this was. It was

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CUT ME FREE by J.R. Johansson: A Memorable Read

I always know a book has touched something deep inside me when days after finishing it, I’m still immersed in the world of the characters and wondering how they’re doing since I last read about them! Yes, I do know there’s a difference between fictional characters

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Psychic Pleasures

Years ago, I took a communications course from a professor who announced on the first day, “There’s no such thing as altruism.” A staunch proponent of exchange theory, he insisted that all social interactions are governed by people’s desire to gain a reward in exchange for providing something of value to others. I gamely attempted…

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In My Next Life, I Want to Be Dean Koontz

Okay. I admit it. I’m incredibly jealous of Dean Koontz. It’s not just his prodigious talent and prolific success as a writer. It’s also that he still writes on an old Commodore word processor. He’s never bothered to learn how to do email. If he needs to send a message, he simply writes it out…

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