Romance, Rapture and a Remote Island

One of the best parts of being an author is having the chance to get to know other authors and share their books. This month I'm happy to share the books of three friends and very different writers. If you are looking for something to read (or starting to build your beach reading list) consider these! Check out their websites too!

Flirting with Forever by Gwyn Cready

Gwyn delivers another great time travel romp in her third novel and her first since winning the coveted RITA award. If you have never tried a romance novel PLEASE give Flirting with Forever a try but be forewarned, you might get hooked. Check out Gwyn's website for her book tour dates (and if you go make sure you tell her I sent you!)

Rapture Ready! by Daniel Radosh

I don't throw around the world "cool" very often, that's on purpose so when I say something or someone is cool you will go, WOW, she doesn't say that very often I have to take this seriously. Daniel Radosh and his book Rapture Ready! is cool. What is better than being amused and enlightened all at the same time? I loved this book. Rapture Ready! is just out in paperback. Get the book, check out Daniel's other writing and enjoy his contributions on The Daily Show where he is now on staff.

The Tale of Halcyon Crane by Wendy Webb

Let's see this debut novel is about dark family secrets, ghosts from the past and features a strong female protagonist -- hmm....wonder why I would recommend it??? Add this one to your must read list!

Meddling with Mid-Life

I will be turning forty-nine this week, and although it's not fifty, it's close enough to ponder what that might mean to me.

When I was in my thirties I scoffed at stories I heard about men and women hitting their fifties and doing outrageous things and calling it a mid-life crisis. A few of my friends parents split up, one ran away with a younger woman, another sold their family home and bought a condo away from their children. Still, others bought fancy cars, boats, motorcycles while others went back to school, changed careers or slipped into a funk that took a few years to get out of. Over time, any change someone in their fifties made to their body, career or life was attributed to this mysterious thing called a mid-life crisis. I scoffed at many of the choices -- plastic surgery, sports cars, younger spouses. Mid-life crises were for people who weren’t happy, that wasn’t going to be me.

Then I hit forty-eight, published my first novel and left a job I had for eighteen years. Welcome to the mid-life crisis. The term mid-life feels silly and hopeful at the same time. If I’m having a mid-life crisis in my late forties that at least implies I will be living well into my nineties right? Although I am in the midst of re-charting the course of my life is it really fair to call this a crisis? If it is a crisis, shouldn’t I be wearing protective clothing?

Whether you like it or not, change happens. In mid-life many of those changes happen in your body, and while I strongly recommend living in denial for as long as possible, sooner or later you look in the mirror and notice something strange looking back at you, someone a lot older. It’s not all depressing, you also find yourself with less tolerance for doubt and if you had a hard time suffering fools in your youth well let’s just say you can barely be in the same room with them once you hit mid-life.

For me though, the big burning question is, “Who do you want to be when you grow up?” Notice the distinction from the “What do you want to be” of my youth. The first half was all about the what, the second half is about the who, and when I say that I don’t mean the band.

There is a scene in The Last Bridge, when Cat wakes up in the hospital after almost drinking herself to death and the nurse asks her who she is, she goes through a list in her mind of all the roles she has in her life and finally lands on a definition of who she is that changes the course of her life.

Some days my definition of who I am is not so simple or flattering, other days the printout of it would require several toner cartridges. Some days who I want to be is within reach, other days it would be easier to try to be someone else.

I think of my “mid-life” project like I did the renovation of my 100+ year old house, it was a great house the way it was, solid foundation, strong bones, welcoming vibe but it was even better with a bathroom on the second floor, a new kitchen and access to the garden in the back. In fact, what made my house better was the way I opened it up, the way I took what was great and made it better.

Seems like that is the model. The “who” I want to be is more open, accessible and welcoming for what comes next.

Women of the World

If you had asked me as a young girl in the early 70s that the first time a woman would win a Best Director Oscar would be in 2010 I would have laughed in your face. By 2010 I would have imagined we would have had a least our first, if not our second woman president, had seen significant enhancements in the economic equality for working women and watched the quality of life for women all over world improve.


Yes, as a young girl growing in the 1970s, I believed women were on their way.


Last night I was proud that Kathryn Bigelow won the Oscar for best director not only because she deserved it but because she was honored for making a film about men in wartime. The success of The Hurt Locker is evidence that sometimes the best person to tell a story is a woman.


Today is International Women’s Day. We should pause to think of how far women have come in having their voices heard and we should also think about how much further we need to go.


I am one of the lucky ones. I was raised by a working mother and a father who believed in the equal rights of women. My parents did not bring me up to believe there was only one role for me. I did not grow into adulthood thinking I had limited opportunities. Unfortunately, the experiences of my life have revealed something very different. Too often, being a woman is a liability.


While I felt tremendous pride in the election that brought us our first African American president, I also felt sad that it took as long as it did and even sadder that it would take even longer to see a woman in the White House. (For the first time I wondered if it would even happen in my lifetime.)


These are minor concerns when you look at the statistics of women in this country that continue to be abused, and/or sexually assaulted, by the numbers of single working mothers that live below the poverty line and by the gender disparities in high ranking positions in government and corporations. Yes, we have made progress but we have miles to go and perceptions to change.


According to the website, the purpose of International Women’s Day is to celebrate the positive advances women have made in their fight for economic and social equality. The website goes on to explain that recently the tone of IWD has shifted from being a reminder of the negatives to a celebration of the positives.


While I’m all for celebrating the advances women have made I think that’s missing the point. It reminds me of taking a tour of a plantation in the South and hearing the guide boast that the slaves on that property were educated, this was after visiting the squalid conditions of the slave quarters. Was that really supposed to make us feel better?




Maybe we should spend a little less time patting ourselves on the back and little more time listening to the voices of women crying out for recognition and respect. I’m pretty sure that the rising number of Afghan women who set themselves on fire to escape a life of domestic abuse and torture would prefer it if we paid attention to their plight and did something about it.


When all is said and done, treating women with respect and as social and economic equals boils down to one thing and one thing only, when women do well, the whole world prospers. When women suffer, we all suffer.