My blog has migrated to a new host and is being painstakingly reconstructed here. Please bear with me as I iron out wrinkles, hammer out the dents, and apply enough spit and duct tape to hold it all together.— Karen
Last week, my friend Victoria Twead wrote to ask if I’d like to take part in the Next Big Thing online event. She’s the author of the delightful Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools , which my husband Rich, who has trouble remembering book titles, calls “ Two Old Mules .” Vicky explained that the…
This is a guest post by Chris Brady, the NY Times bestselling author of A Month of Italy: Rediscovering the Art of Vacation and several other titles. You may also remember Chris as the man who penned the lovely words, “McCann’s writing is warm, inviting, immediately charming, and constantly entertaining. Her narrative was so good I found…
To my grandmother, the silent film actress Ramona Langley , a little white lie was as indispensable as a little black dress. Both, in her opinion, helped the world go around in a more agreeable, amusing and civilized way. Ramona Langley (1893 – 1983) My grandmother was once entertaining a group of friends for dinner…
And yes, I’ve included recipes! “I started your book yesterday,” one woman told me. “Just planning to read a couple of chapters before today’s gathering. And I couldn’t stop. I read the whole thing. Finally my husband’s asking, ‘Are we having dinner?’ and I’m saying, ‘Yeah, sure, fix whatever you want.’ I just had to…
I love living abroad and adore traveling, but even my hell-yes-let’s-go attitude seems downright stick-in-the-mud compared to the nomadic lifestyle of my friends Lindsay Lake and Ross Williams. Now in their late twenties, Lindsay and Ross are nomads. Since I got to know them in Seville in 2008, they’ve lived in Prague; Berlin; Amsterdam; Victoria,…
The times were pretty wild when I was at the University of California at Berkeley, especially for one friend who called himself after a popular cartoon character; I’ll refer to him here as “Roadrunner” (not his real nickname). By spring of our freshman year, the combination of the rigorous academic schedule, various romantic complications with…
I don’t know how you feel about books, but to me, the prospect of having nothing to read is right up there with being deprived of oxygen. So whenever I move, I immediately make a beeline for the public library. Sadly, Seville’s public library turned out to have a paltry supply of books, most of…
Leaving Ohio for southern Spain, Rich and I were delighted to give up our rural lifestyle and embrace the civilized pleasures of an ancient European city. What would our lives have been like if we’d chosen the country instead? Expat Victoria Twead and her husband, Joe, wanted mountain views, wildlife, big open spaces and the…
They call it Casa de la Ciencia, the House of Science, but it’s more like a House of Horrors. Rich and I were passing through Seville’s Maria Louisa Park on Saturday morning and noticed the open door. We knew the building, the spectacular Peruvian Pavilion from the 1929 Latin American Expo, but we never realized…
Thanks to the many, many blog and Facebook friends who voted on the cover layout! Although every entry had its supporters, by far the most popular was the version with the white lettering. Experts have told me that it will also be the most readable in small formats, such as Amazon listings. So it’s a…
CELEBRATING GOOD NEIGHBORS These days I’m writing about Good Neighbors, exploring how the people around me are working to help each other get through these challenging times. My weekly posts appear on Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on my travel and research schedule.
THIS BLOG IS A PROMOTION-FREE ZONE. As my regular readers know, I never get free or discounted goods or services for mentioning anything on this blog (or anywhere else). I only write about things I find interesting and/or useful.
