Mar
27

Dora Stein, 1921-2011

Marion on March 27, 2011

Dora Stein could be described in many ways — a devoted wife to Jack for almost sixty years.  A mother of three.  A proud grandmother.   A “career woman.”  A teacher.  A volunteer.  But mostly, and all of her life, my mother was a fighter. It may sound silly to think of a tiny woman, who […]

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Mar
24

Live Blogging — My Mother’s Death Bed — Part II

Marion on March 24, 2011

13:15, 24 March 2011 — My mother’s body continues to shrink and contract into itself.  Her breathing is shallower than it was.  I think she’s fighting less.  The gurgling sound is still there, though less loud than before, there is simple less fluid left within her or maybe the sound which had seemed horrible at […]

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Mar
22

Live Blogging — My Mother’s Death Bed

Marion on March 22, 2011

It’s been many hours since she last spoke, but her breathing is steady, loud and labored.  My sister and are sitting in a shit-smelly room in the Albany Medical Center, 5th floor, neurology unit.  My sister is reading her kindle by the light of the patient’s bathroom.  I am writing this backlit by my mac.  […]

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death and dying, true story, writing/blogging/publishing related 4 Comments »
Mar
17

Shit My Father Used to Say When He Was Alive

Marion on March 17, 2011

I’d gotten back from Spain and was really fascinated by this one whacky thing I’d discovered.  You know what they call beans in Spain?  It ain’t habichuelas.  It’s not frijoles either. It’s judías:  Jewish females! No shit. Green beans are judías verdes, which could be translated as green Jewish women. I discovered this fact on […]

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Mar
16

On Fiction Writing Rules

Marion on March 16, 2011

The conversation was about the “rules.” Mr. McGrumpypants insisted that he knew what agents and editors wanted, despite having never actually landed an agent, and having only been “edited” by a very, very small press publisher who went out of business shortly thereafter, and many years later by a one-man shop “e-book publisher.”  In spite […]

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