Sharon Bially's Blog, page 5
July 11, 2011
Veronica's Nap Available in Paperback
You heard right: Veronica's Nap is officially available in paperback!
You can order it at Amazon, Barnes & Nobel or Powell's Books (where for some mysterious reason it's listed at almost twice the cover price.)
PLEASE DO!!
Please also feel free to blog about it, tweet about it and recommend it to your book club — where I'd be glad to stop by or Skype in. And while you're at it, swing by Amazon and B&N to add a review.
For those of you reading it online, I'll be pausing the blog...
June 30, 2011
Summer Break & Other Lucky Losses
On top of having lived in Provence, one of the few things I have in common with Veronica is a deep attachment to the European mindset about summer.
Most Europeans take about four of their six-plus weeks of annual vacation in the summer. Around March, office managers from Sweden to Spain typically ask employees, "July?" or "August?" — meaning, "which summer month will you be taking off this year?" Businesses shut down. Families pack up and relocate to country homes, campgrounds or...
June 27, 2011
14.3 – Mint Tears
(Continued from Chapter 14.2 – Where France meets the Middle East; to start book, scroll to "Chapters" in right side bar.) Anne and Mireille sink into the sofa behind the dining table; Veronica remains seated at the table with Luc, back turned, head low, as the conversation drifts from coverage of the Middle East to coverage of the French national soccer team. As the conversation drifts from coverage of the Middle East to coverage of the French national soccer team, on a winning streak...
June 20, 2011
14 – Where France meets the Middle East
(Continued from Chapter 13 – Brain Fart; to start book, scroll to "Chapters" in right side bar.) "Ehh, la belle-doche Américaine!" hoots Mireille's husband, Uriel Sarfati. He wipes his hands on his apron and leans over the kitchen counter to kiss Veronica on each cheek. The apartment smells of food: chick peas, beef, and rice stewing in a broth thick with curry and cumin, steamed string beans, and the acrid paste that forms when red wine vinegar and Dijon mustard are mixed.
"Yeah, that's me," ...
14.2 – Where France meets the Middle East
(Continued from Chapter 14.1 – Feeding the Feud; to start book, scroll to "Chapters" in right side bar.) Didier must have told him about their conflict or complained about her, as spouses tend to, grossly exaggerating her flaws. The word must have spread through the apartment in quiet snippets while she cooked pasta for Luc and Céleste, who don't like dafina, and learned to make vinaigrette. What do they see when they look at her now, passing on a first course of baba ghanoush that she...
June 16, 2011
Congratulations Glut
A few weeks ago Nina Badzin blogged about what she calls the Twitter Thanking Crisis. Her bottom line: "We're spending tremendous amounts of time thanking people and reading about other people getting thanked."
Amen.
While we're at it, I'd like to add my own two cents about an area where too much social media time is also being spent:
Congratulations.
Both the reciprocal variety, as in, "Congrats to XXX for YYY!" and the unilateral variety such as, "Check out this review that says so...
June 13, 2011
14.1 – Feeding the Feud
(Continued from Chapter 13.3 – Skin Deep; to start book, scroll to "Chapters" in right side bar.) "Ehh, la belle-doche Américaine!" hoots Mireille's husband, Uriel Sarfati. He wipes his hands on his apron and leans over the kitchen counter to kiss Veronica on each cheek. The apartment smells of food: chick peas, beef, and rice stewing in a broth thick with curry and cumin, steamed string beans, and the acrid paste that forms when red wine vinegar and Dijon mustard are mixed.
"Yeah, that's...
June 8, 2011
Breaking Out of Staying Home
Lately I've had literally dozens of conversations with moms looking to relaunch careers or start some sort of business after taking time off to be home with their kids.
While these conversations usually lead with a sincere plea along the lines of, "I've gotta get out of the house!" they're loaded with all sorts of implicit barriers that turn any effort to do so into a complete dead end.
For example:
"My new job has to be flexible."
"I need school vacations and summers off."
"It has to pay ...
June 6, 2011
13.3- Skin Deep
(Continued from Chapter 13.2 – Brain Fart; to start book, scroll to "Chapters" in right side bar.) "Five years ago," Didier snaps, "I met and fell in love with a passionate artist.
He narrows his eyes, stabs his gaze right into her soul. "Remember? She knew what she wanted and was determined to get it. Her energy, her enthusiasm, her drive, and her belief that if you just persist, even the craziest dreams can come true, they were contagious. I began to dream, too. I dreamed about a...
June 1, 2011
Women Creating Success – Iris Gomez
Talk about wearing multiple hats…. When she's not representing civil rights groups and individuals in high-impact cases as a respected public interest immigration lawyer, Iris Gomez writes both fiction and poetry. Her gripping debut novel, Try to Remember, touted by Oprah, was published on the heels of two acclaimed poetry collections . And she's the mom of two grown kids! A fan of Iris' writing, her vivacity and devotion to her passions, I'm thrilled to welcome her today to chat about...
