When I was single, I always imagined that if I didn’t marry someone Greek, I’d marry someone I could steamroll with my culture. After all, that’s what my dad did. My mom is from Minnesota and was Presbyterian before she met him, converted to Orthodoxy, got married in the Greek church, moved to Greece, learned […]
Looking for Luck in All the Right Places
September 21, 2018 by Leave a Comment
I just now learned the Greek word for Equinox. While “equinox” comes from the Latin words for “equal night,” the Greek term, Ισημερία, means “equal day.” I owe my vocab lesson to a kind soul who follows my author page on Facebook. Every Rosh Hashanah, when Amalia, who attends public school here in New York, has […]
Suddenly, Last Summer
August 12, 2017 by 1 Comment
After my parents moved our family back to the US from Greece, where we lived for five years, we returned most summers. I know there were mishaps—my sister, Marina, sat on a jellyfish and went temporarily blind from taking anti-seasickness medication, while I got mortally offended when well-meaning, but ill-advised, relatives would comment on my […]
On Love Lost and Found—Counting My Blessings
November 21, 2016 by 2 Comments
I am trying to practice the art of gratitude. For obvious reasons, what with Thanksgiving around the corner, and also because I’ve been so devastated by the examples of hate that I keep hearing about from friends and reading about in the news. I am trying to practice gratitude for selfish reasons, to light a […]
Some of the People, Some of the Time
March 23, 2016 by 2 Comments
I have a feeling President Lincoln wasn’t actually talking about family vacations when he famously quoted the poet John Lydgate to say, ““You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the […]
Have Babies, Will Travel
July 12, 2015 by Leave a Comment
I recently made the brilliant/idiotic decision to take my almost-four-year-old and my just-two-months-old with me on the book tour for The Ladies of Managua. As another author (but one who probably wasn’t changing diapers in between chapters) once wrote, It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. So much so that […]
You Can Run, But You Can’t Hide
June 2, 2015 by Leave a Comment
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 […]
Magic Cake, Magic Cake, Bake Me a Man
June 1, 2015 by 4 Comments
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
May 20, 2015 by Leave a Comment
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
September 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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 […]
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