Nurses’ Week is upon us, and this year, in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, it seems especially fitting to celebrate nurses, those quiet heroes who walk among us. For in every hospital in Boston, it was a nurse who worked feverishly to stop the bleeding, start the intravenous lines, and cover the gaping…

Monday, April 15th, the Patriots Day holiday in Boston, dawned clear and cool, a perfect spring day. The ER at the Boston Medical Center (BMC) hummed with activity – headaches, and chest pain and the wounds and complaints of everyday life. With Boston’s marathon winding down, ER staff were ready for runners with dehydration and…

Wishes really can come true, and that is never more evident than in the season of Christmas, perhaps the sweetest season of the year.  For so many of us, Christmas is a season of evocative scents – of cinnamon and pine trees and roasting chestnuts, and treats for our senses – a  feast for our…

Thanksgiving – my favorite holiday, a day devoted to food, family, friends and gratitude, a day that reminds me of just how much I have in life – my family and friends, my health, my job, the release of my second novel.  I am lucky beyond words, and reflecting that, my list of thanks is…

Last week in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai, a fourteen year old girl, was shot in the head by the Taliban, those evil purveyors of madness.  They accused her of “promoting western culture,” which to the Taliban means not rock music or miniskirts, though they despise those things, but education.  Malala was targeted only because she dared…

Is there anything better than a book that keeps you up all night?  And in summer,  a good book is a necessity.  The books listed here will keep you begging for more.  I’m reading through the list as well and loving these novels! *Mia March’s THE MERL STREEP MOVIE CLUB – 6/19  Three women find unexpected…

I’ve written about inspiration before, about finding it everywhere, often in the last place you’d expect and that was especially true for me last Friday evening.  As I drove home from work, my radio on full blast, the air conditioning humming away, I sat mired in heavy highway traffic but happily preoccupied with the noise…

Nurses It’s been four months since I last blogged and while I write a new one, I thought I’d re-do this one from last year. While trying to create a new blog, my mind had been as empty as a politician’s promises. That is – until yesterday – when I spoke at my nursing school…

Tomorrow is the big day, and if you believe the hype, it’s not just a football game – it’s an epic match that just may change the state of the world.  Okay, so that’s a bit of hyperbole (I’ve been dying to use that word!) but if you’ve seen the commercials, the half-time show previews,…

Choose your words wisely, my mom used to say.  And while I’ve always tried to follow that advice in my everyday life, as a writer, I live by it.  I can (and often do) spend hours on one word or phrase.  Are my character’s eyes a vivid blue or do they sparkle with an electric…