We live in interesting times, especially for those of us who are women. On the one hand, strong women in politics, law and business, like Hillary Clinton, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Angela Merkel, and Janet Yellen appear constantly in the news, and women athletes such as Serena Williams are held up as shining examples of physical prowess. On the other hand, verbal abuse of women in general is on the rise, women’s healthcare seems threatened, and women still make less than men for doing the same job. Not to mention that the number of women in many professions has stagnated at small levels. Sometimes, it even seems we are being pushed backwards into the dark ages, losing our ability and rights to make our own choices.

Yet I was raised in the age of feminism, by parents who believed that their daughters could be anything, that we (for there are three of us) should have careers, that we should pursue passionately creative lives, that we deserved this as much as any man. That belief permeates the core of my being and it permeates my stories. I feature women and girls who want this, but they get in their own way, or others get in their way.

To be a full human being takes more than a career. It takes friends, it takes family, and so much more. Sometimes a career can be devastating; we can head off in the wrong direction, or it can simply be time for a change. It can perhaps be more productive to explore all of this through story, whether it’s fiction or someone’s experience, because through story we engage our whole being. Empathy, imagination and our subconscious are awakened. That’s what I’ve tried to do in my stories, and my blog. Welcome!