In Bolinas Bongo, Briana Kaleigh is back in Marin County for another adventure. Her best friend’s high-strung poodle, Fifi, joins in the fun. After The Belvedere Club, so many people asked me why I was so mean to Fifi. I’m Not! I love Fifi, but I can’t help it if my main character, Briana is more of a pet turtle person than a dog person.
Continue reading →Digi-lit. What is it? The new buzz word for digital publishing. This past Saturday I attended the first annual Digi.lit Conference in San Francisco created by the folks at Litquake.
For many years being self-published was the equivalent to being a kit car, interesting to a select few and not a real car. Today, the internet and Indie publishers have changed that. In the next 12 months, 50% of all books sold will be e-books.
Continue reading →During a recent cooking trip to Italy, a friend, Pam Scott, introduced me to Buon Ricordo. It’s not a new digestive or a recently canonized saint, but a marketing concept to further Italy’s slow food movement.
The Unione Ristoranti del Buon Ricordo was created in Milan in 1964 and included 12 restaurants. Today, there are over 100 Italian restaurants participating and a few international ones in Japan, Australia, Vienna, and Hong Kong.
Continue reading →Our 16 year-old Rav4 had 220,000 miles, and was still running strong, but the clutch was finally showing signs of wear so we decided to look into a new car.
We wanted to go electric, so we surveyed the current state of the technology, keeping in mind we only have one car and so it had to cover all of our needs.
You basically have three choices of electric vehicles today…
Continue reading →For the last six weeks I’ve been in VA taking care of sick parents. VA is an interesting place. The capital, Richmond, is divided by the James River. Although your history books will tell you VA was a southern state the truth is that on the north side of the James River the people think of themselves as Northerners. On the south side, people speak with a twang. As I was often on both sides of the river, I’ve made a list of what I hate and love about the South. So here goes:
Continue reading →A month ago today, the adventurer, Barnaby Conrad, left us behind.
You may have known Barnaby as a bullfighter in Mexico, Spain, and Peru. Or you may have known him as a portrait painter. Or you may have known him as personal secretary to Nobel laureate Sinclair Lewis. Or you may have known him as author of 35 books. Maybe you knew him as owner of the El Matador nightclub in San Francisco. Or perhaps, like me, you knew him as the co-founder of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference.
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