Before I wrote the first word of my first novel, Virgin Snow, I knew it needed to be a trilogy and what it would be about. The idea was to follow the journey of the main character, Cosi McCarthy, a West Side girl from Buffalo, as well as the trajectory of the city itself, across […]
Back-to-the-Land homesteaders in the 1970s were captivated by the idyll of self-sufficient mountain living.
This summer, I will find a comfortable piece of driftwood and sit and stare at the water for a while.
This was my first street festival where books, and the readers who love them, were the main attraction.
When I was developing the character of Joey, a despondent Army veteran for my novel Virgin Snow, I found it necessary to research and reflect upon the sad time in American history when we were engaged in a war with North Vietnam. The conflict had long-term and debilitating effects on many American military members who served there in support of South Vietnam in the […]
My New Year’s Resolutions are a way to remind myself that if I don’t make the “big rocks” a priority I’ll never get them done.
Sicilians have a saying—La Famiglia e Tutto (Family is Everything)—and they live by what they say.
For centuries, poets, writers and philosophers have been inspired by weeping willow trees. So have I.
So ubiquitous was the Infant of Prague statue in West Side homes that as a child, I assumed every house in the world had one.
You are the ones who will have the wisdom, the vocabulary, the critical reasoning and the empathy to make the world a better place.
Family traditions are an important element of the Christmas holiday season, and the old West Side of Buffalo had some unique ones.
I wanted to begin a narrative that would trace the city’s arc from the first warning signs of a collapsing economy to its eventual rebirth and revitalization.