Category: Travel
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Behind Another Flag
I have a little collection of desktop flags for all of the countries I’ve visited. I just order a Ukrainian flag. Not because I’ve been there or because I’m going anytime soon, but rather to show a little solidarity. I also dug out an old Canadian flag lapel pin to wear when I’m in Iceland…
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Writing in Iceland
So, it’s back to Iceland in April for a writer’s retreat. I’m guessing it will be warmer in April than it was in December, but I’ll miss the Yule Cat in downtown Reykjavik. I left in a hurry last time—just as the Covid Omicron variant was emerging and people were being quarantined in a hotel in Reykjavik. Anyway,…
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Jolabokaflod
I saw this online somewhere. This is an Icelandic tradition I can get behind. And it’s probably one of the few not meant to terrorize the kids. Unlike the Yule Cat and the Yule Lads, and various trolls and giants. (Confession: I did like the giant Yule Cat set up in downtown Reykjavik.) A less traumatizing…
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Pharmacists and Authors
I spent the night in Old Saybrook in the James Pharmacy, which, once upon a time, was a pharmacy, but is today a French bakery and B&B. A century ago, it was owned and run by “Miss James,” the first African-American woman to be licensed as a pharmacist in Connecticut. (I stayed in the Miss James…
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California Writing
I’m writing a new story that takes place in the Los Feliz neighborhood of LA, below Griffith Park and the Observatory, and around Venice Beach and the canals. Rather than rely on my fuzzy memory and imagination, I flew out to LA last week to do a little ground-truthing. Yeah, it was also an excuse…
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On the Eastern Shore
Last weekend, I attended the Eastern Shore Writers Association annual conference at Chesapeake College on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. It was a good one-day event. While I was there, I drove down to the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge and saw my first bald eagle. Actually, I saw two, so it was definitely worth the drive…