WriteRunRead Blog

It’s almost that time. The time you heard about but chose to ignore or disregard because it did not apply to you, to your family. But it does apply, now. Not only do you have to accept it, but also you have to take many proactive steps to make it all happen. You have to shop and pack and prepare your first child for college -- to leave for college, to leave. Melodramatic? Yes, but it’s not simply the leaving in late August of the given year. It’s not just the leaving, knowing he or she will return for Thanksgiving, Christmas holidays, and the like. It’s that once your formerly dependent child leaves, he or she will return as an independent adult. (Hopefully!) I’ve been inundated with “Grown and Flown” articles, pointing out the many emotional and logistical hurdles we parents will face. And this may just be another one of those cautionary, sentimental pieces. But each author is writing to share something with you, to help you face the moment, the series of moments leading up...

I was excited to receive my advanced copy of Kristin Rockaway’s debut novel, The Wild Woman’s Guide to Traveling the World , eager to step into the shoes of a fearless traveler, and explore parts of the globe, which I have only dreamed about. While the title may lead readers to believe it is a non-fiction “guide” covering international travel, it most certainly serves as a guide, but not in this way. Sophie, our “Wild Woman” seems to be anything but that: she’s an organized, highly paid, traveling IT consultant with a serious five year plan, a pricey Manhattan apartment, and a strong will not to let anything or anyone get in the way. But on an excursion to Hong Kong, she meets Carson, a nomadic traveler with only a sketchpad, a “Carpe Diem” tattoo, and a dreamy approach to life. Sophie begins to question not only her carefully planned and thought out travel itinerary, but her meticulous plans for the rest of her life. There are many things I liked about this book: the smart wr...

When your parent gets sick, gets that dreaded diagnosis, that’s when you must accept that there may be no choices left. And then, you are left with miscellaneous decisions that have little to no impact on the ultimate result and reality: the final-ness of it all. The diagnosis brings an undercurrent of hopelessness, a feeling of the ground shifting -- with no railings to hold on to. We pay close attention to the doctors’ words and we lose traction by the day. The family gathers in person and through texts, trying to figure it all out, to make sense of it, to maybe find a choice that was not so clear at the outset. But there are no real choices, just inconsequential ones: to treat or not, for how long, how to alleviate the pain, the labored breathing, and the disorientation. As we address these issues, we feel hopeful and naively secure -- that we are taking measures and being pro-active and pro-ductive, pro – anything to help him and to help us, as we can not face that he is s...