A word of advice: be careful what you say around me. Be very careful. Otherwise, you might just end up as the inspiration for my next novel. But don’t worry. When I write about you—and I will!—I promise to be kind. In fact, I will follow the advice I gave in this guest post for…
The Liminal Stage
Magic Cake, Magic Cake, Bake Me a Man
There aren’t many problems that can’t be solved in a Greek yia-yia’s kitchen. (It would be great if the Greek government could let the ladies in our village, Lia, tackle the current economic crisis. But I digress…) During the year in which I lived in Lia, my neighbor ladies made it a village project…
Breaking Out of the Toddler Ghettos
I had such fun reliving my trips with Amalía for PureWander, a great web magazine that focuses on family travel. It’s a topic dear to my heart as right now I’m typing with seven week old Nicolas on my lap, having brought him to New Orleans and Miami on book tour for The Ladies of…
Have Ritual, Will Travel
Well, it’s the End Times. Which explains why I’m having so many revelations lately. Maybe that’s a little dramatic. I’m fairly confident it’s not the end of the world. But it is the end of our time in Miami. See, on Monday we move back to New York, after three years in Miami Beach. And…
A Life Less Ordinary
Yesterday morning, while 64-year-old Diana Nyad was swimming from Cuba to Florida without the protection of a shark cage, succeeding, on her fifth attempt, in becoming the first person to do so, my 52-year-old cousin Spyro Economou had a massive heart attack at his home and died in the ambulance on the way to the…
Casita, Sweet Casita
When Amalía gets tired, she turns to me or her father and says “go to casita.” She knows the word “home,” but it’s not exactly what she intends to say. Casita means “little house,” but it doesn’t refer to size in this case (although it’s true, Amalía has never spent more than a few nights…