4 Min read Santana The drive home Rain on the Roof Full circle Poetry for emergencies * AVAILABLE ON PODCAST * Lotus flower at my mother's Buddhist Center in Bealeton, Virginia * I took a trip to my mother's Buddhist center for the one-year anniversary of her death....
General
I’m on NBC News Daily TODAY — live from 30 Rock in NYC
Readers and friends, In just an hour or so, I'll be live on NBC News Daily, broadcasting from the NBC studio at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, in conversation with news anchor Vicky Nguyen. Today is a meaningful date to be on: fifty years ago today, on July 7,...
One Thing My Daughter Has That I Did Not
2 Min read 1 Book Rec Book Excerpts Reader Notes Signed Copies * AVAILABLE ON PODCAST * Author proofs - link to book page * For twelve years I've been sharing books with you in this letter. Today I'm sharing my own. Here are excerpts from Raising Athena: a Mother and...
Launch Week Gratitude
1 Min read Thank you DODReads review #1 in multiple categories * * * Good evening! Launch week is behind us. Here's how it finished. Raising Athena hit #1 in multiple Amazon categories, Including #1 in Biographies of the Army — ahead of Rick Atkinson's The Long Gray...
Raising Athena is Live
1 Min read Launch update and photos Book link * * Eisenhower Hall for book launch! Good morning! It's here. Raising Athena: A Mother and Daughter Attend West Point Thirty Years Apart officially launched Tuesday at West Point, where the Athena's Arena Conference marked...
Before I left the house
1 Min read * * * Two days. Until book launch. I'm heading to West Point today for the Athena's Arena Conference — fifty years of women at the federal service academies, gathered on the same ground where I graduated in 1991, where my daughter Cara graduated thirty...
Stick Season, 10000 Hours, and a Book on the Way
3 Min read On military service On publishing -- April 21st Launch On writing craft 10,000 hours Apprentice, journeyman, master Toolbox, ages 9 to 99 * AVAILABLE ON PODCAST * And I love Vermont, but it's the season of the sticks. -- Noah Kahan * I look out the window...
Punch, Roll, and Breathe – the Art of Audiobook Narration
4 Min read How a book becomes voice Creative process Voice actor's guidebook Toolbox ages 9 to 99 * AVAILABLE ON SPOTIFY AVAILABLE ON APPLE * "You did about ten full length solo shows with an audience of one," the director said. "Broadway performers only do an...
When Life Is Like a Country Music Song
Giving Thanks 3 Min read 1 Song rec 1 Book rec 1 Poem rec Music in Prose * AVAILABLE ON PODCAST * Life feels like a country music song this fall. The artist seems to sing directly to me: Bela Flick and Abigail Washburn belt tunes out on the car speaker, banjos...
On Writing, Army Fashion, and a Portmanteau
4 Min read ACUs and BDUs Anatomy of a dress shirt, sort of Writing Toolbox, ages 9 to 99 Bonus - portmanteau * AVAILABLE SOON on PODCAST * * An editor commented on a passage in my manuscript that did not specify what uniform my daughter was wearing. So, I edited the...
In the Bardo: Referring to the Dead in the Present Tense
3 min read 1 memoir rec, Salman Rushdie 3 sentences On dying and Buddhism * AVAILABLE ON PODCAST * ON SPOTIFY * * I have missed writing to you, dear reader, sharing in this letter what I've lived or learned, especially as it relates to writing or reading. Pain and...
“We’re Not Here Today Because They Died”
12 Min video Three true stories - my own, 7 residents, On Service Full transcript * VIDEO MEMORIAL DAY SPEECH - BECAUSE THEY LIVED * Dear reader, It's been a year since I spoke at the standing-room only Town Hall ceremony. Mike McGlinn who was head of the VFW invited...
In Search of the Blue Flower
4 Min read 1 book rec On Friedrich von Hardenberg On teachers On Mathematics On love * AVAILABLE ON PODCAST SPOTIFY * I have no craving to be rich, but I long to see the blue flower. It lies incessantly at my heart, and I can imagine and think of nothing else....
An Omen and 3 Ravens
4 Min read Poetry for emergencies 1 Poem 1 Poetry collection Baltimore & Annapolis A bit of Harry Potter A bit of Edgar Allan Poe US Poet Laureate, Ada Limón * AVAILABLE ON PODCAST ON SPOTIFY * * OMEN. On Gay Street in Baltimore on the way to Johnny's for...
What I learned writing TreeHouseLetter for 10 years
5 Min read 1 book rec Writing meditation Writing features * * Why do we do what we do and what is it all about? A few know the answers and when you probe further you realize the answers aren’t answers; the sages leave answers in higher hands. They accept the...
First Meals and Last Meals
3 Min read Poetry for emergencies Poems as gifts 1 Book rec * The food hadn't come yet. In fact, we hadn't ordered. I cried when I learned that my friend had nearly died. She looked good, if a bit quiet. Her husband was telling us what happened. A lot changes in a...
“These United Colonies…are Free and Independent States”
5 Min read 10 Min read AND study 30 Min group discussion On the 5 distinct parts of the Declaration, in a table for reference On how Declaration signatures are categorized * AVAILABLE ON PODCAST * The moral foundation of the Constitution is in the Declaration of...
A Stoic on Stupidity and Plumbing
4 Min read Epictetus - Greek stoic philosopher and former slave (b: AD 50) On theory versus conduct On leaky, wet shower walls * AVAILABLE ON PODCAST * There are some things which men confess with ease, and others with difficulty. No one, for instance, will confess...
The Curse of the Bootlegger’s Daughter
6 Min read Narrative Lust Pleasure of Rereading 3 book recs 1 Short story *AVAILABLE ON PODCAST* An unliterary man may be defined as one who reads books once only. C.S. Lewis I've recently come across a few passages worthy of rereading, which is also a subject of this...
Through the Keyhole
3 Min read On laundry and language 2 Book recs Philosophy and Literature Excerpt: David Wemyss essay on speech and conversation * AVAILABLE ON PODCAST SPOTIFY * * On the corner of Park and Cherry, I shared my impression of X--- with my husband. Let's say I was less...
On Theft, Death, and the Moon
3 Min read Ryokan, Japanese Zen monk René Descartes, Discourse- Part II on Method and Part IV on God and the Human Soul Rest in Peace to a fallen friend 2 book recs Haiku AVAILABLE ON PODCAST Spotify iTunes My friend was recently robbed. It made me sad and reminded me...
Biblical Times – Fire and Flood
3 Min read First of the Four Noble Truths Flash flooding in the Hudson Valley * AVAILABLE ON PODCAST Spotify iTunes * We live in biblical times. Fires and floods. Plagues. Or, pandemics. The Huson Valley at West Point had 7 to 10 inches of rainfall in short order....