Mid-Summer in the Beautiful Berkshires

Cloudless blue skies, warm, dry air, green fields and flowers everywhere. That is what I call a perfect Berkshire summer day. I have been enjoying strings of these days, full of concerts, plays and exhibits in museums not to mention walks (we don’t so much do hikes these days) on shady paths with gorgeous views.

We’ve also had lots of company…family, including surprise visits from grandchildren who swim and fish in the pond and accompany us to Tanglewood, and old friends and new. I think every day of how blessed we are.

Swimming in the pond

Picnic at Tanglewood

Life Got In The Way

I took a hiatus from publicizing Street corner Dreams because, as we sometimes say of happy and sad bumps in the road of our lives, “life got in the way.” Family funerals of beloved people, weddings, graduations, and minor illnesses—my own and others—took up the months just after Street Corner Dreams was published, and reflecting on those months has given me much to think about.

In late November we lost our beloved Joan Reinhardt Reiss, sister-in-law, aunt, and friend. Though we knew it was coming the loss was hard, but remembering her, with her joy of life and her amazing accomplishments, was solace. Her mantra was “Life is not a dress rehearsal.” That is how she lived, passionately embracing everything she did. I quote her often and try to apply that philosophy to my own life.

Weddings and graduations of our grandchildren bring a special joy and reflection on the passage of time. How can it be that these babies and toddlers and teenagers whom we cuddled and cared for have grown to be these adults forging their own paths in life? It makes me ponder what those years have been for me—am I happy with my past? am I doing what I can to use the time I still have? what am I not doing that I still yearn to do? where do I still want to travel? what do I still want to accomplish?

And finally, illness always comes with fear, some pain and worry. In February, after an annual mammogram, I discovered I had breast cancer. Early, small, the “good kind,” the doctors said. Is there any good kind of cancer, I thought. But I marched through all the steps, and the prescriptive care: lumpectomy, radiation, hormone blocker therapy. I feel fine. I have no side effects or symptoms of the diagnosis or treatment, but now and again, when the question pops into my head—the plaintive “Why me?”—I say, “Why not me?” and somehow that steadies me. And I go on. So I am back in the groove again.

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New Project

I’m, amazingly!, starting a new project—which is what I call the next book when I am beginning to write it, and before it has the form and substance of a novel— I am writing notes in longhand in spiral notebooks, imagining characters and scenes. I am researching, researching, researching, which is what one does when you write historical novels. Sometimes I go down rabbit holes on the internet, learning fascinating, but unrelated information. Sometimes I hit upon a brand new nugget that slips an important piece into place. I’m getting excited about the ideas spinning in my head and in my notebook. Stay tuned!

Book News

I did two lovely events with my friend and fellow author, Susan Weissbach Friedman whose debut novel Klara’s Truth just came out. Scattered Books in Chappaqua, New York hosted us and we were together at Shakespeare and Company on the upper west side of NYC. So much fun to talk together of our books and how we wrote them and why.

Interviewing at Shakespeare and Co.

Then one day I wandered into the famous and acclaimed The Bookstore in Lenox, Massachusetts and was thrilled to see both of my books on their shelves in the company of Nicole Krauss and Milan Kundera and MinJin Lee’s Pachinko.

Book Sale

We did a book sale in Middletown, Connecticut at the Bergen House, a lovely meadery (they sell mead, not beer)

The day started out with sunshine and lots of customers, and halfway through the afternoon the heavens opened up, thunder and lightening was everywhere. The wonderful part was meeting some old friends who came to the booksale and stayed for a great dinner at a local restaurant.

Awards and Accolades

Last, but not least, I received the first place Firebird Book Award 2024 for Historical Fiction and lots of people are writing me about their impressions of Street Corner Dreams.

Upcoming Events

If you are in the Berkshires the weekend of August 23 stop by on Saturday between 11 and 3 in Lenox at Concepts of Art where I will be selling both of my books and chatting with everyone who walks by. That weekend, on Sunday, the Boston Symphony is playing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, always a sellout concert. Maybe it’s time for a visit to the beautiful Berkshires in Massachusetts.

And….Coming Later….the Boston Book Festival where I will be selling books with four other wonderful SWP authors.

We are booking events and book clubs for the fall, winter and Spring.