Getting to Know the Old Lady Who Got Away How Shirley’s Life Ends, and This Story Begins My friend, Margaret, sent me Shirley Zussman’s obituary, published in New York Times Legends. (I’ve copied it below, broken into paragraphs to make it easier to read.) Margaret knows I seek out old ladies — and Shirley was certainly something! […]
Blog Posts
Holiday Cheer: A Reason to Smile and Articles You might Have Missed
Usually, “Bah humbug!” and devoid of holiday cheer… this video erased my usual this-time-of-year annoyance! Okay, so I’m a sucker for Poodles. Sue me! You might be, too, if you meet Rocky, my parti poodle. He appears occasionally in my writing — sometimes as teacher, sometimes as terror. Except that the darker grey patches on his puppy […]
When I’m an Old Lady…A Reflection on Aging in the Wake of my 78th Birthday
The following rumination, published first on Medium, was inspired by “my old ladies”… …women 20 or 25 years older whom I’ve befriended and gotten to know since I was 50. I now am old enough to be someone else’s “old lady.” Still, I continue to seek out “good” much-older women — though I’ve had to […]
The Perils of Online Publishing
Am I Boring You With This — or Are You Interested a Writer’s Life, 2021? I fear that your answer is, “Not that again, Melinda!” Perhaps I’m wrong; perhaps you do care about the perils of online publishing. My evolution as a writer parallels other changing fields. I am like a lamplighter after […]
How Do I Avoid Thee?
An Ode to Procrastination (with apologies to the rightful author) This parody was originally published on Medium. I didn’t want you to miss it! Hey, fans. It’s here: “How to Not Write, 4.0” … I once again found myself updating my essay on how to avoid what you’re supposed to be writing by doing something else, even writing something else. […]