Author Archives

It was difficult to come up with a blog post about finding happiness in such difficult times. My husband and I both lost our jobs this week but I consider us fortunate to have our health. In Italy, people grieve in isolation; our most vulnerable

My mom died when I was fifteen. It was sudden and tragic. No time for goodbyes or any of that last-minute stuff. We were bonded together like shoe strings tied or fingers crossed so the thought of going on without her was really tough. The

What pictures will you have of yourself by the end of your life? This is the question posed to readers in my forthcoming novel. This story begins in 1970 with thirteen-year-old Donna narrating the story of her and her older brother, Vincent. As

Happiness isn’t possible without peace and peace isn’t possible without practicing forgiveness.  In Olive Branches Don’t Grow On Trees, Silvia, in an attempt to help her brother Vince come to peace with their father, tells him

The theme of happiness is central to all of my novels and stories. Everyone is well-aware of the necessity of happiness on an individual level and everyone wants to be happy in some way or another. At the very least, they want relief from the

True happiness can only be found within. This simple lesson can be challenging as it is human tendency to think that a better job, or a bigger house, a new place to live, or a romance could bring happiness, and these things do indeed bring

In Olive Branches Don’t Grow On Trees, Silvia unites her family, and in doing so, she learns that happiness isn’t possible without peace, and that internal peace isn’t possible without having peace in one’s outer world.

“Happiness…come(s)…as a result of learning” Aristotle Paradoxically, the dawn of the information age with all of its technological advances has contributed to the new dark age in which we live. It’s easy to become

Technology and its impact on people isn’t a theme of my first novel, Olive Branches Don’t Grow On Trees, as the protagonist, Silvia is a Luddite who prefers “vinyl records to CD’s, print books to e-books, and paintbrushes

Protagonists in both of my novels are driven by their desires to find happiness. In Olive Branches Don’t Grow On Trees, Silvia is motivated to unite her family by her desire for peace.  She wants to make peace within her family and to save