Delicate, fragrant, and effortlessly refreshing, this elderflower spritz is the perfect drink to brighten up warm afternoons or add a touch of elegance to your next gathering. With just a few simple ingredients, you’ll have a beautifully balanced cocktail that tastes like summer in a glass.
Here’s an authentic Gilded Age cocktail recipe that works just as well for this weekend as it did in 1901. You’ll find it on the pages of my manuscript-in-progress.
As writers, our job is to step into someone else’s shoes—and empathy is the key to doing it well.
In this video, I break down how to understand and develop empathy in your writing to create characters that feel authentic, layered, and emotionally real.
Macarons involve a few steps—this recipe is geared to the beginner baker, so all you’ll need is a bit of patience, and you’ll find yourself with a plate full of delicious fruity macarons.
Here’s this week collection of interesting tidbits and new developments in the world—curated to help you avoid the not-so-interesting stuff (and no affiliate links or gotchas, so click on whatever piques your interest).
The lovely Delaware Park Golf Course, which rolls over one of Frederick Law Olmsted’s many beautiful Buffalo parks, has been a favorite of golfers since the 1890s.
But it was also once the setting for some of the rough-and-tumble social climbing of the young and striving Elmwood Set, who were determined to establish themselves as separate, distinct – and possibly superior – to the the city’s old-money stiffs.
Straight from the Book Club Kit for Current of Darkness. (This recipe is adapted from today’s Food & Wine for easier sourcing of modern day ingredients and temperature settings.)
Here’s the first batch of questions and answers I’ve been asked about Rheinbach’s Remedies, my new short story, with more to come. Let’s go behind the scenes.
We all grow accustomed to seeing the past (at least pre-1950) in black and white. I don’t mean this (only) metaphorically—I’m referring to the monochromatic and chiaroscuro tints of black-and-white photography.
Of course we all know that the world of the past wasn’t black and white—it was as colorful as today is. And there is a marked difference in our emotional reaction to the somewhat cold images of black-and-white film than there is to the more ‘realistic’ images taken with color film. Black-and-white images seem somehow distant and very still, while color images seem immediate and brimming with life.
Official Trailer Drop! — A First Look at My New Short Story
Step inside the world of Rheinbach’s Remedies. Catch a glimpse of the characters, setting, and style that bring this story to life—your next favorite read starts here.
What do you think of when you hear the term ‘patent medicine’? Nostrums, snake oil, or quack medicine, probably.
These days, it’s easy to throw shade on the old-time patent medicines, but in this article we shall give them their due: for laying the foundation for what we know today as ‘Big Pharma’—the giant drug manufacturers that loom so large in daily life.
