I was recently asked to judge a "Paint a Puppy" Contest, an event that was part of my town's Old Home Days. It is a fun event, sponsored by Rotary, and includes free cake and ice cream for all the residents who come to see the paintings.

I'm currently working on a new collection of literary short stories. The characters are based on people I knew in my past. I came from a lower middle class family with a father who was a postal worker and my mother was a housewife who worked at a variety of blue collar jobs, as they used to be called. Basically that means no formal education is needed. This is where I came from and these are the kinds of people I met and worked with in several of my early jobs. And now, looking back on those days, these are the people whose lives are the most interesting to me if only because they lacked the knowledge and experience to carve out for themselves a more meaningful and prosperous life

She was falling in love, she knew it and there was no stopping it from happening. They had been together for a little more than six months now and she was thinking he would be asking her to move in soon. She wanted to wait, not to rush into anything, but she knew deep down that she would say ‘yes’. The only drawback, if there was a drawback, was the amount of time he spent away. But he was in sales, and that is what people in sales did. They traveled, a lot. Sales technology to be exact, ie, big bucks! That meant, with her measly salary as an editor they would be able to buy a home soon after marrying and then have children and a beautiful home in the suburbs with their son and daughter going to the best schools, but she was getting ahead of herself. Way ahead!