Growing up in Chicago, I had friends who were diverse in pretty much every way—race, religion, and sexual orientation. While at the Commission on Human Relations, Chicago’s civil rights department, I worked side by side in harmony and respect with coworkers who were diverse. Though our days were filled with discrimination cases and hate crimes, […]
Twenty years ago this note was left for me by a Hungarian who participated in a communications workshop I conducted in Germany: “I am 42 years old, but I cannot imagine that a woman could to learn me something new. You learned me how to have contact with the public. Thank you!” I framed it […]
In the author’s note for If I Don’t Ask, I mention that this fourth book in the Ask, Tell series is basically all the things I wish I could have put into Ask, Tell—if I’d had a few hundred thousand words to play with, and a better understanding of how to craft a book back […]
There was a conversation in the Season 1 finale of Apple TV+’s terrific show, For All Mankind, that powerfully resonated with me. Astronaut Ellen and her boss and fellow astronaut, Deke, are in space, off course and low on fuel. Deke is seriously injured, and as they drift further into deep space waiting for help […]
Several years ago during my tenure as an educational consultant, I was sitting in a classroom watching an excellent teacher engage every student in his room. They volunteered answers, respectfully commented on each other’s opinions and seemed genuinely thrilled about learning. No one acted out and no one refused to do what the teacher asked. […]
Was it audacious for a 29-year old (that would be me) to write about a love story for a woman her age and a woman in her mid-50s? The age-gap romance didn’t yet exist in lesbian fiction, at least to my knowledge. My only literary model would have been Jane Eyre. I blithely ignored the […]
Leslie’s story has been in my head for years and now it’s written in this book. It brings together some of my loves, strong women doing cool things, rock climbing, movies, Joshua Tree National Park, and supportive communities. Before time and wandering attention distracted me, I spent many happy hours in climbing gyms and outside […]
When the muse knocks, shimmy to the door to answer! The Right Closet is a timely, poignant-while-comedic tale. Marinated in farce and baked in a sociopolitical oven, it posits hate and division versus love and unity. The characters and their story brewed for a long time through years of real world social wins and losses […]
That title sounds so dramatic, but when it comes to 2020 and beyond, life has been dramatic to the point where it feels like the new normal. So there I was struggling to write Simply the Best, finding joy in very little beyond my closest circle of family and friends, beloved books and games, and […]
When asked to write a few points for my biography on the Bellabooks website, as is standard for me, I didn’t know what to say. I strongly dislike talking about myself and found it awfully reminiscent of that dreaded question during job interviews: “Tell us about yourself” Not a new question then, and I’ve frequently […]