At some point in the interesting new movie Frances Ha someone declares: “Twenty-seven is old.” In his enthusiastic review film critic A.O. Scott observes: “while that may in some sense be…

A few weeks ago, my friend and former jogging partner Ellen Sweet sent me this snapshot that she had just discovered while scanning old photographs into her computer. I remembered the picture, and I may even have a copy of it somewhere, but it was something of a shock to see it illuminated on my…

We hear that for many writers, the characters they create "come alive" during the writing process. But in what ways is that phrase more than a simple metaphor? And how is a writer supposed to manage the expanded household as it begins to fill up with progeny spilling over from the pages of a…

Found a sexy title for your book or article? Forget it. Unless you are self-publishing or writing your own blog, your title won't belong to you. Title power is with the publisher alone, unless you are famous. A bestseller author will have some say, but everyone else can only hope and try... to negotiate. They are entitled to an opinion, no more.

I have witnessed a number of such negotiations for titles (my own, my lover's, my friends', my writing clients'). Publishers are masters at…

Is there anybody who isn’t curious about how they DO it, the French? Anybody who wouldn’t want to know all about l’amour à la française? An elegant, erudite and highly entertaining book  looks at French literature to tell us How the French Invented Love: Nine Hundred Years of Passion and…

How right or how wrong does it get when Gertrude Stein appears in the movies? I had a second look at Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris -- and compared his Gertrude to her twin in Alan Rudolph's cult classic, The Moderns:…

 There are moments when you get a glimpse of the person your child is becoming and it is bittersweet.  A recent trip to Paris with her made me see she's no longer my little girl. She is becoming a beautiful young woman of sixteen.  I'm so grateful to have had the chance to spend the week with her...and shockingly, there were no arguments!…

October is Roctober with Litquake! We have readings galore for you this month!

FIRST UP, join us for our regularly scheduled event at Studio 333 in Sausalito, October 11. 7pm. This very special show features writers from the audience who entered their names in the drawings over the months. 333 Caledonia Street, Sausalito, 7-9pm. $5. 

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A little memoir piece I signed up for on Yahoo ages ago was finally posted in their Voices section.  Though I'm no longer with my husband I still look back on that first trip to Paris fondly.  For a little while at least, the trip brought us closer together.  In the end, I'm glad to have something good to look back on, even if it didn't work out in the end. I've been back there since that first visit,  but like so many things in life, your first time holds a special place in your…

I just published a short memoir/travel piece on Yahoo Voices.  Sadly, much has changed in the short time since then.  I needed to write something about a first trip to a foreign country and that trip to Paris with my husband before we separated was memorable indeed.

Finally Made it to Paris at Forty

Maybe some of you can relate! (fyi...Yahoo is fixing the two typos that…

I have been busy retracing the many steps of the monuments of Paris these past few days, so not much time for reading, more like soaking up the culture and inspiration of being in a magical city.

I did manage to finish Barbara Kingsolver's excellent 'Prodigal Summer' which I will write more of soon in my books blog and following on from this glorious visit to Paris, I am now immersed in Hemingway's 'A Moveable Feast' keeping me in…

Why There Are Words Literary Reading Series presents the following readers on the theme Animal June 14 at Studio 333 in Sausalito, 7-9pm. $5. Animalis. Latin for “having breath.” Join us for a night of readings that will surely take your breath away!  Visit the website for authors' full bios and more info. http://whytherearewords.com

Tami…

All Art Friday's spotlights are on The Library as Incubator Project, textile artist Marilyn Henrion, ArtLex, Zaha Hadid's simulation at the Virtual Broad Art Museum, and the National Gallery of Art's NGA Images site. In the exhibition round-up, check out the Bellevue Arts Museum's "Making Amends" (video included) and "Knitted, Knotted, Twisted & Twined: The Jewelry of Mary Lee Hu"; the Ratner Museum's "Common Ground: The Handmad Print"; Indianapolis Museum of Art's "Printmakers in the…

Another Round of Gertrude Stein Loves Hitler!

Sketch by Tom Hachtman

Perpetuating an Urban Legend about Gertrude Stein

Wouldn’t you know that the…

Preparing to launch Best Paris Stories, the anthology of the winning stories from the…

99% Gertrude Stein

Aquarie Stein is having another virtual birthday, Feb. 3^rd. She is turning 138. Looking back at the year she just spent, culturally speaking, it was the 99% Gertrude Stein year.

The excitement created by her modern art collection and her still shockingly modern personality was not just for the ususal 1 % of avant-gardists and art enthusiasts.…

This is Who-Man. My son and I invented him over breakfast this morning.

Who-Man is a superhero whose arch-enemy is a many-eyed monster called “Crime.” Who-Man wears a bumpy suit (as you can see in Sebastian’s rendition of him above). The suit can shoot fire, but our hero rarely has to use this weapon. He has other ways of…

OBSCENE CRITIC, OBSCENE ACADEMIC

Phil Kennicott, Washington Post critic of Stein, by artist Gisela Züchner-Mogall

The present Stein controversy was picked up by Scene4 Magazine, the international magazine for arts and media, in a special issue on Obscenity:…