Having lived in Prague and travelled around the area quite a bit, I felt a special connection to The Bloodletter’s Daughter, a historical novel by Linda Lafferty that uses the legend of Don Julius, the mad bastard son of Emperor Rudolph II as the backdrop to the story of a young woman sold out by …
Heather and I, post-race and pre-pancakes Saturday night, before the Danskin Triathlon out in Sandy Hook, was a veritable carb-fest at my friend Heather’s house. I shoved penne down, in between bites of chicken francaise. All week, I’d been scheming ways to avoid this tri while saving face. I was tired and not feeling it, …
A few weeks ago, I accidently let myself be ensnared by an anti-teacher troll. @coachdb18 @rweingarten ok, you go on with your ad hominem attack… We’re not getting anywhere obviously, have a good one— Nancy Cavillones (@NBCavillones) August 19, 2012 @coachdb18 @rweingarten also, nice move there, selectively quoting me & skewing the context of the …
When I first began reading The Baker’s Daughter, I was struck right away by the realization that while I’ve read plenty of Holocaust literature, very little of it has been from the non-Jewish/non-Other perspective. The Holocaust seems to be one of those issues that is made out to be black and white, with no grey. …
I’m checking e-mail obsessively these days, waiting for an important bit of news. I wonder if we’re really supposed to compost produce that doesn’t naturally grow in the NorthEast. At a stoplight yesterday, I thought to myself, “What have I done with my life?” I’m still thinking about the tone in which I meant to …
My husband tonight said that our marriage is like an arranged marriage, in a lot of ways. I was so relieved to hear him say that because I’ve always felt the same way but thought he would be hurt by it. My husband, he’s kind of a sensitive guy!But his admission is just one more …
I am supposed to be sewing crayon rolls right now but I took a little break because I want to write this down: I had dinner last week with my friend Sue, a great writer and semi-famous NYC journalist. Over a bottle of Rose, Sue helped me figure how to write an essay about being …
I did a real writerly thing the other day. When I take the long drives down the Saw Mill Parkway in Westchester, especially when the traffic is light and I can drive long stretches without stopping or slowing down, my mind churns busily. The way some people get their best ideas in the shower, I get …
UPDATE: Look at this wonderful piece by Constance Hale Scribe on the crafting of sentences. It’s chock full of fine sentence examples, some of which I could add to my list! -ed. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/28/sentences-crisp-sassy-stirring/ Sometimes, I am astonished at how much vocabulary I lack. I want to describe things and try to think of words other …
My grandfather passed away today, at the age of 88. Here is something I wrote last month: Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sightBlind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. My paternal grandmother lived in Florida when she died, in 2005. She’d been living …