Writer

Some of my earliest memories are of my mother reading stories to me at bedtime. I loved the sound of her voice and felt so lucky that she and I could not only travel to these distant worlds together, but that the characters in these books became our friends and allies.

In February 2021, at the height of Covid, I took an online writing class and discovered that my own life was full of stories. Since then, two of my personal essays, The Belle of the French Quarter in 2021 and The Power of Stories: Reading Watership Down in 2022, were published in the Exponent II magazine.

In 2023, in honor of my father, I started my blog, Strings and Stories. Here is an excerpt from that first post entitled Halloween Baby:

Today is a very special day for me... I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I might do to celebrate (it) ... Yes, my dad was born on Halloween and today, on this final day of October in the year 2023, he would have been 100 years old. 

What I have decided to do is something that I have been putting off for a very long time. I’m going face my fears, confront my demons, stare into the face of my adversary and…. start a blog.  

I like to think that my parents who are no longer with me physically are watching over me now and cheering me on as I take on new challenges. 

Finally, I'd like to share with you another writing project that I am working on. As part of this journey into my past, I unearthed an early memory of hearing a violin solo on the radio when I was three or four years old and a story that I wrote in poetic form about that moment many years later entitled Up Bow, Down Bow.

The sensation I experienced that day was of traveling alongside the violin's melody as if on the wings of a mighty eagle. The violin's tone was rich and full, yet light and graceful.  It spoke to my soul of beauty and majesty, of hope and purpose. The story I wrote attempts to capture this moment and expands it to demonstrate how music can be a companion throughout our lives, especially through challenging times. Eventually, I want to illustrate and publish this story. You can read more about it in my post, Roadblocks.