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Brainrot: Did TV in the 70s Shape Our Brains? Comparing Past and Present Media Influences on Neurological Development

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Garbage In, Garbage Out? I suffer from brainrot. According to an older r elative, I have suffered a decline in my cognitive functioning and mental acuity because I receive my news from social media and internet-based news sites. My beloved boomer is skeptical about the internet.  She worries that getting news online isn't as reliable as tuning into CBS News and the Bakelite-bespectacled Walter Cronkite.  But - NEWS FLASH - Walter Cronkite is dead. In those golden days of television, when the world seemed to slow down for thirty minutes each night, we would gather around our bulky sets to watch Walter Cronkite on the CBS Nightly News. The soothing cadence of his voice and trustworthy eyes, framed by his iconic glasses, offered a reassuring anchor in a sea of global tumult. It was a time when news was a shared ritual, a collective experience, and Cronkite’s nightly broadcast felt like a trusted friend guiding us through the chaos. I remember trusty old Walter.  I recall sitting cro
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Christmas Wishes: A slingshot and a wonky-eyed angel

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Grace Murphy was a latchkey kid.  The protagonist of  Finding Colin  was the only child of a single, working mother, which means she grew up spending a lot of time alone and learning how to fend for herself.  Now, grown-up and truly on her own, Grace dreads the Holidays. I was also a latchkey kid. I grew up in the 1970s as the only child of a single, working mother.  I wore second-hand clothes and an itchy piece of yarn with my housekey attached to it around my neck.  In other words, I  feel Grace’s pain. I was more fortunate than Grace, though.  My mother worked her slender fingers to the bones to make my Christmases special, to fill them with traditions and memories I now cherish.  (Click to finish article) 
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Ask Santa To Slip These Into Your Stocking

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I know what you are thinking, "I am still sewing my Halloween costume.  It's too early to think about Christmas!" Is it ever too early to spread a little holiday cheer?  I don't think so!  To celebrate the release of my anthology, Winter Wishes , I am bringing you, dear reader, two early Christmas gifts. My first gift is news about the 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway, an exciting reader appreciation event sponsored six bestselling romance authors -  Jules Bennett , Leah Marie Brown (me) , Allyson Charles , Kieran Kramer , Fern Michaels , and Susan Fox .   Starting on October 16, 2017, we will be giving away one prize per day for ELEVEN DAYS and a huge prize on the TWELFTH DAY (it's a fab final prize). 12 days of prizes, bonus material, author interviews, and goodies galore. To join in the fun and enter the contest, just visit 12 Days of Books! **Don't forget to visit each day to enter the daily contest and score bonus material. My second gift is t
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Creepy Château de Chaumont & Catherine's Shady Squad

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The first time I visited Chateau de Chaumont was in the winter of 2003 - a brief visit that lingered in my imagination for years after.  Since the castle was closed to tourists, I wandered the grounds alone in hopes I might encounter the spirits of inhabitants past.   This might seem an unusual pastime unless you pause to consider the castle's rather unusual history.  Chaumont was once the home of Catherine de Medici, queen to Henri II of France.  Catherine practiced what some called "the darker arts" at Chaumont, inviting astronomers, numerologists, and a host of shady characters.   The astrologer  Nostradamus was one of the member's of Catherine's shady squad.  He  visited her at Chaumont on several occasions.  Legend has it Catherine attended ritualistic animal sacrifices in the castle's front hall (this told to me by a groundskeeper I encountered) .   On that first visit, when the wind eerily whispered through the ancient pine trees,
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A Travel Tradition

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Sixteen years ago I visited Mellerstain House , an 18th Century English manor home located in the borders between England and Scotland. I was so taken with the magnificent estate that I flung my arms out and boldly declared, "It's all mine!"   Cindy , my super fun travel pal, snapped a photo of me sitting on the hood of our rented Jaguar with my arms outstretched and the rambling manor home as my backdrop.   Mellerstain House, England Little did I know striking the It's All Mine pose would become one of my travel traditions. Since then, I have posed outside mansions, manor homes, castles, and palaces around the world.   The photos document nearly twenty years of travel to three continents and eighteen countries (and my surprisingly unwavering taste for black garments).  Flipping through the collection today, I realized, though not for the first time, how truly blessed I am to have traveled to so many exotic places (I also  realized I need to add some
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