I see, I listen, I think. Therefore, I write.
Feminism in Victorian Novels? Impossible. Not when the status of women placed them just a bit above spoiled children. But I found Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South and realized it wasn’t so. I had never heard of Ms. Gaskell until … Continued
Delectable dishes play a more prominent role in Hello, My Love than they do in the 19th-century romance novels it pays homage to. The characterization, style, and plot of Hello borrow from both Pride and Prejudice and North and South. … Continued
I tore open the cardboard packaging much too eagerly and my palms smarted from the vigorous peeling off of unyielding adhesive tapes. But it’s worth the rawness of a few minutes. I looked at this thing in my hand, dressed … Continued
Maybe in jest, Gaskell once said that she could title her fourth novel (North and South) “Variations on Death.” Five people die in her novel in ways fitting to the characters. I could have used a comparable title for my … Continued
Grief is for the Living. Those left behind when a loved one dies know this. In Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South, death is a main player. At least six characters, big and small, die in the course of the novel: … Continued
Paris plays a crucial role in Margaret of the North. There, John and Margaret honeymoon in mid-1800s Paris: They gawked, dumbfounded but with great interest, at the spectacle of a city undergoing massive renovation. Debris from the demolition of old … Continued
I dreamt, when I was a kid, that I would write a novel someday. Exercise my right brain. No idea then what about or how to go about it. As years rolled quickly by, I doubted I could write fiction. … Continued