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It was a rainy Saturday afternoon.  Fat, melancholic clouds lumbered slowly across the sky.  The swirling summer breeze seemed to carry with it a restlessness that had me pacing about the house in search of some pleasant diversion. Oddly, there wasn't a book in my vast library that could hold my interest, nor did I feel like working on my novel. My soul yearned for that which I could not express.  Escape, perhaps.  I decided to escape to 16th century Venice, an exciting locale filled with gorgeous courtesans, corrupt noblemen, religious zealots, diabolical intriguers, and lavish soirees.  I watched Dangerous Beauty , a biographical movie about Veronica Franco, a sixteenth century Venetian courtesan and poet who charmed a legion of men with her wit and beauty. In the movie, young Veronica falls in love with Marco, a dashing young man from a noble family.  As Veronica is without a dowry, Marco is forced to set her aside in favor of a...

Have you ever had a wonderful dream, a dream so powerful it rolled across the landscape of your life like a thundercloud, obliterating the sunshine?  A dream so magical that you woke with a sense of regret and longing?  A dream that made you sit up, look around at your life, and find everything wanting? I have had those types of dreams.  Growing up the only child of a single, working woman, I spent a lot of time by myself.  Besides getting into mischief, I liked riding my bike to the library, an old brick building with creaky wooden floors and sunlit filled window seats. I would grab a pile of books and magazines and sequester myself in a distant alcove. It was in that library my love  affair with Hawaii began.   One day, while flipping through the pages of the latest National Geographic , I came to an article about Hawaii's volcanoes and how they helped shape the island's lush landscape....

I have been working at the craft of writing for over thirty years.  In that time, I have probably written a million words.  You would think, someone who possessed my passion for phrasing would find it easy to express her thoughts.  That is not always the case. Recently, I tried to use my words to express  a tornado of thoughts swirling around in my brain, but they came out all wrong and someone I truly love was hurt.  Despite appearances to the contrary, I am an "in the head" kind of person, always thinking, analyzing, over-analyzing.  So it was only natural that I sit and ponder the cause of my verbal devastation.  I concluded that fear was the cause.  F-E-A-R.  A nasty four letter word that keeps people from achieving, obtaining, expressing. The problem with being a wordsmith is that sometimes I reach into my bag and pull out more than I need.  I have a tendency toward verbosity.  An unfortunate trait I am attempti...

Today, a woman who has influenced millions of malleable mademoiselles celebrates her 52nd birthday.  With her quiet but changeable nature, she has shown girls around the world how to try on different personas in their journey towards self-discovery.  Sexy, sassy, sweet, confident, career-driven, demure, domestic.  She's been it all! You might have already guessed that I am not talking about a real, flesh-and-blood woman but a plastic, mammary-enhanced doll-woman.  That's right, I am talking about Barbie!  The doll that has undergone more make-overs (and dye jobs) than Madonna, turns 52 today!  Becoming the most famous plastic woman in history has been no easy feat.  I'll be honest here, I wanted to share with you the heart-warming story of a lonely four year old who received her first Barbie.  I wanted to tell you about how this only child, the product of a broken home, took one look at the ...

Eleanor Roosevelt said, "A woman is like a teabag; the hotter the water she finds herself in, the stronger she becomes ." Perhaps I am biased, but I think women are the most remarkable creatures on the planet. We have been queens and slaves, mothers and teachers. If every woman in the world was gathered together in a grand cafe and instructed to hold a gab session, I am sure we would discover that no two were completely alike. The life of each woman would be singularly interesting. From Eve frolicking and tempting in the Garden of Eden, to Eleanor Roosevelt spouting of words of incredible wisdom (while wearing sensible shoes to boot!), famous women have lead fascinating lives and kept shocking secrets. Here are some shocking facts about some of the world's most remarkable women. The Virgin Queen Most people know Elizabeth I inherited her father's flame-red hair and his fiery temper, but they are usually surprised to learn her explosive nature once prompted her to...

The Bitchiness of Women Why aren’t relationships between women easy? What happens between the time we play with our Barbies and giggle about boys to the time we chat over coffee and gripe about our husbands? As girls, we willingly share our secrets and our toys. Then, some miraculous transformation occurs and we become bitchy. We nit-pick, gossip, compare and compete. We tear each other down when we should be building each other up. We put ourselves on a track when there is no race. Crushing the Joneses My friend, Mary, is a dear woman but she has a serious problem. She has a pathological need to keep up with the Joneses. If one of her friends buys a new couch, she is suddenly redecorating her living room. If another buys an outfit by a particular designer, she buys the entire collection. She copies recipes, hairstyles, outfits, manners of speech, gardening techniques, decorating ideas. The list is endless. At first, I found this very annoying. I did not like to meet her for lunch onl...