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Musings

A Full Life to the End

Wall Street Journal Saturday/Sunday, September 7-8, 2013 The Ultimate End-of-Life Plan How one woman fought the medical establishment and avoided what most Americans fear: prolonged, plugged-in suffering By Katy Butler author of “Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death,” to be published Sept. 10 by Scribner. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324577304579054880302791624.html?KEYWORDS=A+full+Life+to+the+end&cb=logged0.34060677189703203 death with dignityhospice carepalliative…

Musings

A Student Nurse Comments on Autumn’s Grace

One of the lovely experiences of having a novel published is having people share their impressions, and then take the time to  tell me their own stories. Both are gratifying because at many times during the writing of the manuscript I would stop and say “Why am I doing this? Does the world really need…

Musings

“Dare To Dream Of Better Endings”

The spring/summer issue of the Bloomberg School of Nursing Alumni magazine, Pulse, is devoted to death and dying. The authors, all nurses,  are eloquent and compassionate. Their comments underscore my motivation for having written Autumn’s Grace. Dean Sioban Nelson notes that “until we see death and dying as part of the continuum of care, Canada…

Musings

Questions About The Expression Of Sexuality In Older Women

As I engage in the distractions of summer (gardening, cycling, golfing, socializing), I continue to puzzle my way through the lives of the four elderly women who are the characters in “The Memory Boxes.”  Their lives are full and interesting, probably because they still have each other to watch out for, to be challenged by,…

Musings

Ego Integrity vs. Despair

Writing time has been limited of late as I have tended to gardens, and prepared for the book launch. However, these activities have not stopped me from trying to define my elderly female characters in The Memory Boxes  more clearly. They are always at the edges of my mind. The result is that I have been “clipping”…

Musings

An Observation on Life Imitating “Art”

I am having an unusual day and it’s because of the freezing rain. I had spent the morning happily working at the computer. Rainy days are perfect for writing. My husband however was feeling trapped: unwilling to drive, and not able to work outside. He was wondering what he might do, when he realized “we”  could…

Musings

A New Beginning

It is a curious experience to be in the simultaneous process of launching a book and beginning work on a second project. This time I trust that the characters will guide me through their stories. It is a different stance than the one I took with Autumn’s Grace. During that first encounter with writing fiction, I remember…

Musings

Finding my passion

It would have been a long shot for anyone at Newmarket District High School to predict that I would find my passion as a writer. English classes terrified me. Although I read extensively and enjoyed reading, I was completely unprepared for the keen observations that classmates had about protagonists, themes, metaphors etc. The course textbook covered grammar,…