All this talk about airports has fired up my neurons. Many of my memories ping pong around the surreal experiences I have had traveling. Like being stuck at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris. Munching on my third super croissant. Flaky, buttery, quintessentially French. Slightly panicked by the blaring French announcement possibly saying, “Trudi, this […]
I will admit to being scared – I am acutely frightened these days of my status as an immigrant but in truth, I have felt this way since childhood. When I was six, my mother took her two daughters from our home in Scotland to meet our ship captain father in Alabama. We flew into a […]
Over a decade ago, swayed by peer pressure, I tried bikini waxing for the first time. My friend warned me to go to a salon for the service. Being cheap and overestimating my smarts, I thought I would try it at home. “Do you think that’s wise?” she said. “Can’t be that difficult. They sell […]
People ask what prompted me to write a 430-page novel where I kill off the protagonist, the antagonist, the villain, many secondary characters, and a big ol’ list of walk-ons. Over and over again. Well, to answer the question, I have had the kind of experiences that prompted me to write that novel – a […]
I’ve had many opportunities to think about perfectionism lately. Being from a family of overachievers, I struggled with it from toddlerhood. I keep thinking I have it in the bag but … not so true. I remember mimicking other teenagers when I first immigrated to America. The stress to fit in was so great, I […]