Author Archives: Trish

Our leadership now is egregious. The xenophobic spirit that infiltrates our society is like a noxious gas. Where are the beloved philanthropists with their altruism? Gone, shouted down, locked away. Instead we are left with this atavistic mindset that ravages our society with specious arguments and irrational fears. I prefer the luscious influx of newContinue reading “Words I Love”

We’re in our sixth month of the pandemic and I’ve gotten really used to my own company. I’m in my house most of the time, packing and sorting through stuff because I’m moving — since my job is now fully remote. I’m throwing away old tax returns and trying to figure out what to doContinue reading “A Taste of Normal”

Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, took office in 1913, which is the same year that my historical novel THE BLUE HOUR takes place. He doesn’t figure at all in my book, but I may have to put him in a future one because…what a scoundrel. All I remember about him from historyContinue reading “Woodrow Wilson Unmasked”

A few days after the election of a smarmy conman to the presidency of the United States of America, I looked in the mirror and realized my hair was in need of a cut. No, I thought, resolutely. I will not cut my hair. Not until he’s gone. I wasn’t sure why I made thisContinue reading “Why I haven’t cut my hair since November, 2016*”

Last week the president tweeted that college professors (all members of the radical left apparently) were indoctrinating students, not educating them. Well, if teaching students about the importance of voting is indoctrination, then count me in. Donald Trump’s War on Higher Education (The Atlantic) I teach writing classes, and I get to assign the topicsContinue reading “Indoctrinating students on the power of the vote”

A couple of days ago, someone said to me, “Isn’t it awful? Those people tearing down statues?” I responded, “I don’t give a rat’s ass about the statues. I’m more concerned about the man who died with a cop’s knee on his neck.”  You’d think as someone who loves history and bemoans the loss ofContinue reading “Toppling the Past”

If you hate abortion, don’t get rid of contraception! The impetus for my historical novel, The Blue Hour, was the disappearance of a beautiful and popular heiress named Dorothy Arnold in 1910. There were several theories as to why she disappeared; one of them was that she may have been pregnant, undergone an illegal abortion,Continue reading “If you hate abortions, don’t get rid of contraception!”

Stealing: Life in America (Review)by Michelle Cacho-NegreteAdelaide Books. 203 pages. Michelle Cacho-Negrete’s personal narratives of a life sprung from a Brooklyn Ghetto explore how she has been challenged, changed, and honed by poverty and discrimination. These oftentimes bleak, but meaningful, experiences shaped Cacho-Negrete into an elegant writer and a magnanimous human being. While the experiencesContinue reading “A Memoir in Essays”

I’m always on the lookout for a great character description. Usually, it’s a fictional description, but, while reading a profile by Taffy Brodesser-Akner of Val Kilmer in the New York Times Magazine, I came across this: “He’s 61 now. He’s still so handsome. His hair is still blond. His eyes are still the unimaginable greenContinue reading “A good character description is worth a thousand pictures!”

The English translation of The Time in Between by Maria Duenas came out in 2011. But I only came across it recently when I had the chance to quickly browse the local bookstore (by appointment), looking for some pandemic reading. The Spanish Civil War isn’t a pandemic but it certainly left the citizens of SpainContinue reading “Another Time in Between”