When you write a novel, and when you finally, finally have a publication date coming up, you’re supposed to pull out all the stops to get the news out into the world, to generate buzz and pre-orders. You do social media posts, blog posts, Substack newsletters, all that. But you are also encouraged to write […]

My protagonist is disabled, I am not. This originally appeared as a post on the Women Writers. Women’s Books Facebook Page, May 1, 2024 My second novel, Unswerving, published by the University of Wisconsin Press, is about a young woman trying to rebuild her life after she’s paralyzed in a car accident. Estranged from her […]

It’s beginning to feel real: my second novel, Unswerving, will be published next March by the University of Wisconsin Press (UWP). The publicity manager at the press is firming up bookstore readings, and the book is already listed as available for pre-order on Bookshop.org, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon. I’m both excited and nervous now […]

My second novel will come into the world in early 2024, published by the University of Wisconsin Press. And it now has a name—a new name: “Unswerving.”   This is not the title I used while working on the book. I called my novel “Spinning.” It follows a young woman, severely injured in a car […]

No, I’m not truly “in jail” and I’m not emailing from a distant country asking you to wire me money ASAP to procure my release. But I am in Facebook / Instagram / Messenger/ all things Meta jail, banished from the Zuckerberg Empire—and I cannot get out. My sin? Apparently, someone hacked into my account […]

My novel was published four years ago now, and I am often asked when the next one will be out. Good question! I have completed a second novel; not a sequel to When It’s Over, but something completely different. This story, based on my years of clinical experience, is set in contemporary California, and features a […]

On this winter solstice day 2020, we seem to be truly entering dark times. The coronavirus is surging worldwide, even in nations or states that took the pandemic seriously from the start and where the authorities have demonstrated effective leadership. Here in California, where we thought we had flattened the curve back in the summer, […]

Ordered to shelter in place…All schools, gyms, bars, restaurants, theaters, concert halls closed…Grocery stores with bare shelves. These are indeed astonishing times. Like everyone else in California, I am hunkering down for the duration. And I’ve been surprised by a sudden yearning to talk to my mother. She died eighteen years ago, and in the […]

I was raised in England in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. The war was so recent it didn’t feel like history. Bombed out buildings still littered the streets and we had rationing for some items through the mid-fifties. People of my parents’ generation talked about the war constantly: the sound of the […]

November has been and gone—so how did I do in NaNoWriMo, you may wonder? If you recall, NaNoWriMo is this crazy thing, with thousands of people all over the world participating, making the commitment to write a novel in a month. Or, at least 50,000 words—that’s supposed to be your goal. When I decided to […]

My novel When It’s Over is based on my mother’s story; she was a refugee from the Holocaust during WWII.  After her death, I got the idea of writing something to preserve the memory of her experience, but quickly realized there were too many gaps in my knowledge to write it as memoir. So I […]

I have decided to go for it. I’m going to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. That’s National Novel Writing Month, in case you don’t know. Writers from all over the world log on and commit to writing a novel in a month.  What? I know, crazy, right? I’ve been aware of it, known people who […]

My daughter was on a backpacking trip a few weeks ago, hiking the Lost Coast of California. I have never backpacked there myself, but I am familiar with the area: the beautiful, rugged coastline in the far north of the state, terrain so steep no highway could ever cut through. But there’s a challenging 25-mile […]

Now that my novel, When It’s Over, is out in the world, it’s been thrilling to get positive feedback. What better reward for the years of slogging away than to hear that the novel resonates with readers—friends and total strangers alike? But the greatest thrill has been the new connections I’ve made with the descendants […]

When It’s Over is historical fiction, but it’s based on my mother’s story. My mother was a refugee. A refugee from the Holocaust. She was part of a group of young, mostly Jewish, anti-fascist activists in Prague who managed to escape the Nazis. Most of their family members left behind were eventually deported to concentration […]

My novel, When It’s Over, set in Europe during WWII, is based on a true story: the story of my mother’s experience as a refugee from the Holocaust. She was a young woman, an anti-fascist activist from a secular Jewish family, when she fled Czechoslovakia and then Paris, and spent the war years in the […]

Feb 4 A Novel Idea Interview My interview on Suzanne Lang’s wonderful program on KRCB – the NPR affiliate for the North Bay – was originally scheduled for early in the morning of Oct 9. That was the day the Santa Rosa area burst into flames in one of the worst wildfires in California history, […]

So, it’s Happy New Year and all that jazz. New resolutions to eat better, exercise more, live with more gratitude, hug those I love. The usual stuff. But for me, 2018 is also the first New Year I can call myself a published author. I still have to pinch myself to really believe that it’s […]

Initially, I was disappointed that the Barnes and Noble in my sister-in-law’s hometown didn’t offer me a traditional author “book reading” gig. They “didn’t have the space” they claimed, which seemed ridiculous. I’ve attended many author readings—and had my own author events—in much smaller bookstores, where the staff cheerfully maneuver bookshelves on wheels to clear […]

At first glance, it looks like any other Berkeley coffee shop: bags of gourmet beans displayed on racks, croissants and scones in a glass case, rows of young people engrossed in their laptops, the soft hum of conversation, and behind the counter the baristas at work at the espresso machines.           But this is no […]

I was inspired to write this novel after the death of my mother in 2002. A friend of mine, a woman I had known for over 30 years, asked me how it was exactly that my mother had ended up living in England, so I started to tell her –and she said: that is an […]

They arrived today: four big boxes delivered by our friendly neighborhood UPS guy. He had to brave the fury of MacDuff, our 20lb West Highland terrier, who wags his tail and jumps with delight to greet everyone who comes to our door—unless you’re delivering mail or packages. Then he is transformed into his miniature version […]

Okay… I know it’s been a week now, and so much has happened since, but I have to write about the eclipse. I’ve been up in the mountains without any network access so I couldn’t post until now. I got pulled into the eclipse hype relatively late, about a month prior, and by that time […]

I climbed a mountain the other day. Well, not all the way to the top. But I went on a wonderful mountain hike, ascending more than 1500 feet, through lush meadows, past tumbling streams full of spring run-off, and tons of wildflowers in hues of purple, yellow, red, pink, white and blue. My neighbor, who […]

September 26 is exactly 3 months away. That’s the day for When It’s Over to make its debut on the world stage. After more than 12 years gestation and 3 title changes, the due date is in sight. I’ve been busy as a bee, reviewing typos discovered by my kind advance readers; consulting with my […]

I have just returned from New York City and my first ever Book Expo (BEA 2017). I attended with a group of She Writes Press authors—and I have to say that was the best part: getting to meet in person the awesome project managers and support staff from SWP and all my fellow authors. And […]

Less than 5 months to go until Publication Day! I’m done with the editing, the further editing, the cover design, the cover copy, and have even received my first blurbs, wonderful words of support from some generous writer colleagues. But still so much to do… Top of the list is bulking up my social media […]

When I met with Brooke Warner of She Writes Press (SWP) at the Mendocino Writers Conference last August, I thought this would be just a brain-storming kind of consult. I had been asked to submit a synopsis and the first chapter of my novel ahead of time, but I didn’t realize that when I walked […]

I spent years trying to get an agent to represent my novel. I did my research on which agents might be appropriate, who had represented authors I love, who was looking for new clients. I tried to pull any connections I could think of, and fine-tuned my query letter again and again. All in search […]

Barbara won First Prize in the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition in the Short Story category, for her story “The Ring.” Here she read excerpts from the story at the Awards Ceremony at the San Francisco Public Library on April 3rd 2016. You Tube video of her reading at that event This story was not published […]