Home. I've wrestled with this word over the years. I've defined "home" as the haven where I felt safest, the circle in which my siblings and I received our first years of schooling, the nest I made with my husband after our wedding, the sacred cradle that my babies entered a few days post-birth...and on it goes. Living in Seattle and yearning for a larger home…
It’s a good day to live in Seattle. This is not breaking news, but the Seattle Seahawks have made their mark as Super Bowl champions and my hometown has erupted in frenzied ecstatic cheering. A few weeks ago, the news of a victory parade downtown made me shudder—large crowds=stampede, death and mayhem in my mind. Perhaps I was raised by protective parents (okay, fine, I was…
When I mix up my right and left hands, we all chuckle. When I mix up the brake and gas pedals while parking, someone loses their cool. More accurately, that someone losing their cool is me: I’m pounding my steering wheel with both fists, swearing and half-hissing half-wailing because I’ve hit the gas while trying to hit the brake, and all because I thought my Honda…
Push aside blankets in the dark cozy corners and snuggle up to the window. Exchange your black wardrobe (I’m talking to you, Seattle!) for lighter-colored, or at least colorful attire. Allow yourself an iced version of your favorite caffeine stimulant, even if the weather’s only a smidge warmer than usual. Listen to Celtic, Folk, Instrumental, and Swing style music—it will make you want to go outside,…
I sat in a room with 200 amazing, powerful, beautiful women this weekend at the 2012 Women's Leadership Summit and was blown away by the mass of ladies ready to change how women interact with culture, business, and society. Through an act of amazing perfection, I attended this event via a work-trade arrangement (read my ecstatic post about all this coming together). I came away with…
It's here! Moonlight and Oranges is officially for sale on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com in both paperback and eBook! You can look to the right of this post at the snazzy link that takes you right to Amazon.com to purchase it. Now that the moment has finally arrived, ("This is real, Elise. You're not dreaming. The numbness and disbelief is perfectly normal and proportional to how badly you've…
When I first began writing, everything was about extremes. I focused on making my characters as beautiful they could be, having as much fun and excitement as possible, and the bottom line was that I kept myself entertained. I wrote because I found storytelling exciting, and all of my stories had the requirement that they continuously enthrall my imagination. My first “writing” was actually illustration with a few…
I am now a little more than two weeks away from launching Moonlight and Oranges. But before I go into more of that, please join me in welcoming the glorious, smashing cover design for Moonlight and Oranges, designed for me by Isaiah Qualls. Isn't it gorgeous??? If I could look back and say what were the five most important things I did to bring myself to this…
In the art world, and in most places of life, change can come as fast as a tsunami wave--and my reaction to change may be compared to the terror of standing on the beach, watching the incoming wall of water, and wondering if I really am prepared for what's ahead of me. The analogy is imperfect. A tsunami would likely have killed me. The changes in my…
*SPOILER ALERT! PLOT AND KEY POINTS IN THIS REVIEW* Cross cultural, forbidden, young love, set against the painful backdrop of World War II and the Japanese internment camps. Henry's family proudly identified themselves as Chinese. Keiko's family proudly identified themselves as Americans. Keiko's English was flawless, learned from birth. Henry still had trouble with many of his words. They strike up a friendship because they're both…