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My great-grandmother stops by today to check in on me. She makes tea from leaves and bids me drain it quickly, for once in my life, not to speak. Looking into the cup, she tells me to buy a bicycle, grow my hair and wear it up, that a man I don’t know thinks ardently of me, that number six will be significant, and that I should have my eyes checked. It seems she gets by by fortune-telling on the other side: no version of the future, she says, is wasted on the dead. It’s true my eyes have been...

The holiday vibe is already feeling way more electric this year — perhaps you, too, are sensing the extra-festive spirit in the chilly air? After a long 2022, we’re all overdue to glow up at all the office soirees, family reunions, and dinner parties that await our RSVPs. And, if you’re the type to impress the crowd with a head-to-toe look, we’ve got quite the selection of holiday dresses ahead. You can expect plenty of vampy velvets, luxe metallics, little black dresses, sparkly sequins, and glamorous gem tones in frocks that are trimmed with this year’s top trends — think...

I recently listened to a brief NPR Author Interview with former British poet laureate Andrew Motion on the subject of war poetry. I more or less inherited an interest in this subject matter because my father spent several years in intensive, self-directed study of the genre before writing a memoir that explored his experience as an Army draftee who fought in the Vietnam War through the lens of 20th century war poetry. I spent a portion of graduate school copy-editing the drafts for him and handling an elaborate permissions project seeking the rights to reprint many of the poems he...

We’re all ready to fill up our houses with the latest Christmas decor, but how do we avoid it being boring or tacky? Well this year to get you host ready in style, Shaye Ford, interior designer at Miss Amara, has shared their tips for levelling up your Christmas décor. Choose the right colour scheme Great festive décor begins with a solid colour scheme – and this doesn’t mean confining yourself to the usual red and white palette. From neutral colours to warm metallic hues like gold, brass, copper and rose gold – think outside the box to give your space...

 Jenn McKinlay: Having just returned from Ireland, I am in the process of turning that adventure into my next romcom TO BE READ (2024). Woo hoo! Because I do love my research, I have entirely too much information and the book appears to be heading in the direction of being 100 pages too long. Oops. Sorry not sorry.I mean I have to work ALL of this in, don't I? Sheep in Kerry Lady's View  Ring of Kerry Ballyseede Castle Graveyard near Tralee Cliffs of Moher Kenmare I do, I totally do!!! LOL.TO BE READ: Emily Allen, a librarian on Martha's Vineyard, has...