By AB Plum During a recent cruise from Barcelona to Miami I asked the young Indian cook preparing my egg-white omelet, “Have you visited the US?” “No, madam. It is my dream. But someday I will go. Where do you think I should start?” Obviously, this isn’t a one-minute conversation (about the time for my […]
By AB Plum Laughter, they say, is good for the soul. In The MisFits, my dark psychological thriller series, few characters laugh. The question remains open, does Michael Romanov, the main character, have a soul? This deep philosophical question leads my writer’s mind to ask: Do politicians have souls? Too many of them, like Michael, […]
By AB Plum Once, long ago in a faraway galaxy, I vowed never, ever, under any circumstances would I text. Keeping that oath proved easy for a long time. I secretly felt a kind of snobbish pride for refusing to follow the herd. Hey, I knew friends who bragged they texted in bed before going […]
By AB Plum Have you ever noticed how the perfect plans you make so often fall apart? Go straight to hell in a handbasket? Turn quiet to chaos? The end of June seemed perfect for two home projects: installing new carpet in the MBR painting all the woodwork throughout the house. Tricky to get the […]
By AB Plum Thanks to the wonders of technology, I can write this blog a week ahead of its due date, schedule it, and take off tomorrow for a fun-and-frolic vacation in San Francisco. I’m writing the day before the Comey Testimony. (I capitalize testimony b/c it’s almost as if Mr. Comey’s appearance is a TV program or […]
By AB Plum Ignorance is bliss. Too many facts confuse us. Time changes everything. Sometimes, we know more than is good for us. Life is a mystery; we can’t know everything. Waiting and patience are virtues. Lately, these platitudes and clichés have claimed too much prime real estate in my brain. And, I know why. […]
By AB Plum “If you travel in space for three years and come back, four hundred years will have passed on Earth,” says Anna in Jodi Picoult’s wonderful novel, My Sister’s Keeper. This quote reflects some of my feelings over the past five weeks as my husband recuperates from brain surgery. Specifically, he had a […]
By AB Plum Remember those long summer nights as a kid when you lay outside and stared at the stars and moon moving across the velvet sky? Tracking the moon’s movement, I felt some vague, inexpressible awareness of time passing. Not much, though. My aunt and uncle’s farm in the back hills and hollers of […]
By AB Plum Bubblegum + Paper Bags Lead to . . . Ruination. Last week with several deadlines looming and promo tasks lurking, I screwed up. Uh-huh, right in the middle of a frustrated, stressed-out, hair-pulling cycle, I got distracted. By bubblegum. None of my characters chews bubblegum. Why not? I asked myself. As […]
By A B Plum What’s the big deal about alternate facts? Depends. Now, before you send me “hate mail” rubbing my nose in the error of my ways, let me attempt one view on my response. (Misguided, shallow, inane, naïve, etc., etc., etc., though that view may be). Read on. Please. We writers of fiction […]