Welcome to my blog, It’s a Writing Life! The title reflects my lifelong joy in writing about interesting and involved people, current events, business and civic interests, history, sports as well as research-driven and travel-related subjects. It also includes deep dives on family histories, ancestry and any subject that expands my learning curve. In a word, everything I love.
For the past few years, I have been writing freelance articles for publications such as Architectural Digest (AD it yourself) and Naples Illustrated, a Naples, Florida lifestyle magazine. As a professional writer, I’ve had the pleasure and honor of writing about fun do-it-yourself home projects as well as many dynamic and engaged people and organizations. Learning about their work is truly inspiring. You can check out my recent work here, including two feature articles that won Florida Magazine Association (FMA) Charlie Awards in 2021 and 2022.
My mother’s nearly ten-year career – from the late 1930s through most of the 1940s – had a strong information / radio theme (see Part 1 – A Lifetime Passion and Part 2 – The Roots of the VOA of this series). One of those pieces was the American Broadcasting Station in Europe (ABSIE), which was set up as a
When I started researching material for my book, The French Desk – A Brooklyn Gal’s Journey into Wartime Propaganda, I pulled my mother’s personnel file from the US Department of State to better understand her war work history. Much to my delight, all her previous jobs were listed. As I read through the file, I came to the realization that
My mother loved listening to the radio. When I was young, she had 1010 WINS tuned in on a tiny little black “flip” clock radio in our kitchen. You could faintly hear the tinny news tone upstairs, with the time check every three minutes or so, as we filtered downstairs to breakfast. To this day, the staccato news break sound
Often when I explain the background of my yet-to-be published book to someone, The French Desk – A Brooklyn Gal’s Journey into Wartime Propaganda, about my mother’s World War Two experiences working for the Office of War Information (OWI), my companion is usually intrigued, and looking for more information. Source: IMDB Propaganda is a loaded word to throw out in
After our brief rest at the hotel, Bill departed for the evening EuroCloud Summit dinner, so Tina and I had a night in front of us. We decided there was enough light in the day to visit Notre Dame first and then head over to the Sorbonne to enjoy a delicious French dinner. We wanted to make the most of
