I have been thinking lately, as I often do, about the film Moonstruck. I have seen it probably thirty times but even if you haven’t watched it, you may know the famous “Snap out of it!” line, spoken by Cher’s character, Loretta, after she slaps Nicholas Cage’s Ronny. This comes…

Recently in my work as an editor, I was writing developmental notes for a first-time author. In his novel, he had chosen to write from the point of view of a certain character and well, I didn’t think it worked. I had several reasons, but the main one had to…

Like many women in America, I find myself disturbed by the Kavanaugh hearings. I’ve been in a state of unrest this week, watching but not really watching, reading online reactions and commentary, listening to the voices of women telling stories of assault and suppression. Of course, I, too, have a…

In July of 2015, I took a bad fall while running in downtown Chicago. We were in town for my youngest sister’s wedding and after spending several days in the suburbs where she was married on the vast lawn of our father’s and stepmother’s house next to the Fox River…

One Modern Family’s Story — My sister Carol calls me around nine-thirty on a Wednesday morning. As always, her voice is cheerful and upbeat. In the background I hear the usual, accompanying sounds to her phone calls — the canned echo, the rush of cars outside. She lives in San Fernando Valley and commutes seventeen…