• Happy New Year! Off to Graduate!

    Happy 2015 my dear readers! May it bring you love and joy and beauty (not to mention, lots and lots of writing, of course)! The year 2014 has been pretty exciting. I completed the second half of my studies at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Learned up to my ears. Wrote a critical thesis delving into novels in verse. Finished a draft…


  • Happy 2014! A Rambling New Year’s Post

    Just back from New York City, on the heels of the craziest night of the year. My family’s New Year’s eve was made of stars, the windy Big Dipper shining over the Hudson River, while fireworks broke the night above our heads. On the cruise boat’s lower deck my husband and I took over the dance floor. Our…


  • How to celebrate the New Year, Russian-style

    Since Soviet Russia wasn’t allowed to officially celebrate Christmas, we had to have some other major holiday. And it had to be big. Huge. BETTER than Christmas. Thus was born the Soviet New Year, honestly THE BEST holiday EVER. Think Halloween with its costumes and candy. Add to it Christmas with its dressed-up evergreens and…