Edith Wharton had a vivid imagination. As a child, she loved to play a game she called “Making up” which involved inventing stories as, book in hand, she walked around feverishly chanting as if in a trance. This caused her parents much consternation. When friends came to play, she asked her mother to entertain them … More Edith’s Vivid Imagination
We’ve had a busy few days up in the Berkshires, mixing book business with fun. Our primary purpose was to check with the places carrying my children’s books to see if they needed more copies. And on Tuesday, I was scheduled to read with families at The Mount, home of the writer Edith Wharton. (But … More I Visited Utopia Today
The month of April was one of the best ever. Charley decided that since it was my Birthday, I should have an entire Birthday Month. Now, I’m not big on cards and gifts and parties. I’m extremely pragmatic and he is well-aware of this. When he asked me to marry him, he wanted to buy … More Lovely April
I’ve been informed by WordPress that it is the two-year anniversary of my blog Around ZuZu’s Barn and it brought back many memories from the early days when I was even more clueless about this social media stuff than I am today. If it wasn’t for my Rhode Island friends, Rob Bentley and Peg Goter, … More Anniversaries and Friends
Norman Rockwell was one of America’s foremost artist illustrators. He once commented on not having an idyllic life and how this affected his work. “Maybe as I grew up and found the world wasn’t the perfect place I had thought it to be, I unconsciously decided that if it wasn’t an ideal world, it should … More An Old-Fashioned Christmas
Annette Snyder, 50 Authors from 50 States, gives writers a chance to showcase their states on her blog – and it’s Rhode Island’s turn at the end of September. You can find this post on her site and write a comment for the chance to win a collection of RI note cards, illustrated with photographs … More A Little Bit About Southern Rhode Island
Well, Talk Like a Pirate Day 2016 is over and we are getting back to some semblance of normalcy, i.e. using a commonly understood dialect and not AAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHTICULATING in the little-used (no mystery why), limited pirate vocabulary that comes out every September 19th around this house. I tried to give myself a break and recycle … More “The Pacas are Coming!” – National Alpaca Farm Days
Charley and I spent the last few days in the Berkshires marketing my latest book, The Pacas Are Coming! ZuZu and the Crias and delivering more copies of A Berkshire Tale to the vendors. The Berkshire Botanical Garden is one of those lovely places which carries my books and it is the setting in A Berkshire Tale for the … More Daylilies
This week I finally managed to finish the photos and the edit for The Pacas Are Coming! ZuZu and the Crias. It’s actually the January chapter of A Berkshire Tale. I initially wrote the stories separately but on advice from an editor at Penguin Books, I revised and compiled the ten stories into one book centered around the first … More To Publish or Not to Publish – That Is the Question
I’ve been thinking about last Tuesday and the fun I had reading with third graders in Connecticut. I’m convinced that third graders are the sharpest people on the face of the earth. They are incredibly enthusiastic about everything. Their faces literally shine with unabashed anticipation. They volunteer for anything. They sit on the floor with … More Sharp As Tacks!
“I was raised to be charming, not sincere,” This is one of my favorite quotes from Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into the Woods. It’s Prince Charming’s rational explanation to Cinderella when she finds out he’s a cad. Ah, the fairy tales of my youth! So many subtle messages sent to guide me on my way through life; through … More On Expecting Princes To Be Charming
I’m a late bloomer. Very late! At age 65, I wrote a story featuring a tabby kitten named ZuZu, born in a barn at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I liked it so much I wrote more stories set in the Berkshires and added in lots of farm animals and an … More Claremary P. Sweeney, RI’s Late-Blooming Author
Around ZuZu's Barn 