Gifts from My Father
Life’s gifts have a way of materializing in unexpected forms. It is up to us to recognize and grab hold of each gift before it evaporates into thin air....
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12
September
Blog
Guest Blogger: My Mom
My mother, Betty Frankel, just completed reading the galley of On the Sickle's Edge. I want to share with you some of her reactions to the book....
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24
August
We Want to Hear Your Family’s Story
One of the over-arching themes of my new book, On the Sickle's Edge, is the theme of family stories and how they get passed down through the generations. In the run-up to the release of my book next January, I am hosting a Guest Blogger Campaign, and I'd like to...
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17
August
How Memory Changes Our View of History
I am struck by the human capacity to forget the past; to change the perception of the past in order to shape the future....
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12
August
A History Lesson for Us All: Is Hindsight really 20/20?
What I want to talk about today is history. How we redefine it over time; how we reinterpret it to match some version of the recent past—or the distant past—that suits our needs. How common—and how dangerous—a human characteristic it is. ...
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02
August
What is the Nature of Creativity: Child’s Play, of Course
As children we dance unhampered by social norms, we lie in the grass on summer afternoons and imagine the swirling shapes of clouds as animals or monsters. Cloud-watching should be a required activity for grownups, too....
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20
July
From One Generation to Another
I’ve recently been privileged to spend some intense time with my beautiful two-year-old granddaughter, and over and over again I was forcefully reminded how magical the world looks at that age. It’s all about firsts, and about stories. A rented house, with all kinds of new...
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05
July
Why I Do the Research: Finding the Real Truth
As a kid, I would rather have eaten runny fried eggs, frogs’ legs, and boiled Brussels Sprouts than done research. In high school, the idea of doing honest-to-goodness research chilled my blood. And throughout college and grad school, I did it, but never with a...
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21
June
Swimming Among the Rainbows
Inspiration. It comes and goes like a spark. As a writer, you have to be there with materials on hand, at all times, so that the heat of the spark can ignite your tinder and get those creative juices flowing whenever inspiration may strike. But what...
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31
May
The Art of Character Development
A piece of granite. A lump of clay. A blank canvas. These are the raw materials of art. Visual and tactile, the artist must lay his hands on his material to reveal the image trapped inside. By contrast, the novelist’s material is not the blank page,...
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24
May
The Problem with Character-Driven Writing: You Never Know What Kind of Drivers the Characters Will Be
It’s hard work. The pay is terrible. I don’t need a lot of respect, but some small amount of consideration from the characters I bring to life would be nice. Who put these people in charge anyway?...
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16
May
Celebrating the Unsung Mothers in Our Lives
Women wield far greater power than we realize, and in subtle ways that we often miss....
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08
May