I’ve been on WeightWatchers (formerly WW and Weight Watchers) this go around for four years. Since then, I’ve dropped 82 pounds (37.2 kilograms) and kept it off. This isn’t the first time I’ve been on this program, and it isn’t my first attempt at getting to a healthy weight. I’ve…

Suppose you’re looking for new books to read. You could get Fourth Wing or another Colleen Hoover book, but you want something different. Something outside your typical genre. Something from an author you never heard of before. But Amazon has millions of titles, your local bookstore has shelves stuffed with…

You’d think it would be easier to be grateful when times are good. It’s actually easier to be grateful when times are bad because the good stuff becomes easier to see and appreciate. When times are good, we can take things for granted. Or worse, people can feel they’re entitled…

The day after I moderated four panels at Indie Author Day, I watched a heartbreaking TikTok video by fellow indie author J.C. Wade. At a school where she works, she met another author who was signing books for the library. When she told her she was also an author, the…

This week is Halloween, although you probably couldn’t tell from all the Christmas decorations that have been in the stores since July. But it’s still time for scary movies, and it’s the 50th anniversary of one of the scariest of all, The Exorcist. I never watched it. The stories of…

You would think an American Jew with relatives in Israel would be the first to have Israeli flags and “I stand with Israel” all over my social media. But I know the history, and I’ve talked with Palestinians and Israelis. …

Friday, I had planned to go to my high school homecoming game. Then, I developed tendinitis in my right shoulder that made it a bad idea to drive 70 miles to Reseda. This was the second time I had to cancel reunion plans in the past few months. Our family…

My publisher didn’t pick up Christina’s Portrait. They had a limited number of slots, and they needed to allocate them for books with a greater potential of sales. That’s fair. My book sales have been flat. I haven’t paid attention to marketing because I’ve been focusing on writing (and my…

I rejoined Weight Watchers (WW) nearly four years ago. What I’ve learned there not only helps me with weight management, but in all aspects of life. Recently, I was introduced to a practice called Three Good Things. You take time out and think about three good things that happened to…