Tag: GirlTalkHQ

talkin’ ’bout journalistic courage

GirlTalkHQ recently published my essay about why journalistic courage matters right now, as journalism is being threatened at a moment when we need its skepticism and truth telling more than ever.

It was inspired by watching Tony-nominated actor George Clooney who I met in New York City after seeing his phenomenal play, Good Night, and Good Luck, about how a CBS journalist, Edward R. Murrow, sacrificed his career in order to speak truth to and about U.S. Sen. McCarthy.

The essay begins this way:

I didn’t want a selfie. I didn’t want to grab George Clooney’s hand. I just wanted to tell him something.

I stood on 7th Avenue in Manhattan at the end of a long line by the Winter Garden Theater’s stage door after having seen “Good Night, and Good Luck.” Clutching the play poster I’d purchased while I waited for its star and playwright, I wasn’t there to fangirl but to deliver a message: “I teach journalism and I very much appreciate this show and how you’re standing up for the importance of journalism.” 

With a black “Good Night, and Good Luck” baseball cap tucked low on his dyed-black hair and oversized, tinted aviator glasses covering a substantial portion of his face, Clooney, the son of a journalist, signed my poster and responded to my message saying, “Well I appreciate anyone who teaches journalism.”

You can read the rest of the piece here.

a post-election reckoning

In the predawn hours on the day after the election, I processed my angst through my writing. I submitted this piece to GirlTalkHQ and they graciously decided to publish it.

If you’re feeling the way I’m feeling, you likely need to cope with your grief, your anger, your dismay. This is for you.

Here’s how the piece begins:

They chose the rapist.

They empowered the serial, sexual abuser.

The one who famously values women only for how sexually attractive they are to him.

The one who hand-picked Supreme Court justices who then stole reproductive rights from American women, rights they’d previously sworn were safe.

The one who bragged about that revocation of reproductive rights, how he was responsible for turning the clock back fifty years. Who selected a running mate who assesses females based on their reproductive status and their usefulness for the tasks of bearing, raising, and caring for children.

Supporters of this presidential ticket openly laughed about how their opponent — a former prosecutor-state attorney general-US senator-vice president — was a prostitute who gave blow jobs in order to get ahead, that she worked street corners.

They called their competitor stupid. A bitch. A hoe. The c-word.

To read the rest, go to GirlTalkHQ.

worried about the presidential election? here’s an excerpt of my forthcoming darkly humorous novel about a father-daughter political rift.

Feeling stressed out about the US presidential election? Experiencing tension with friends or family members? You’re not alone.

@girltalkhq has published a sneak peek preview of my Feb. 2025 darkly comedic novel, Louie on the Rocks, about how Trump era politics exacerbated the estrangement between a retired MAGA dad and his progressive Millennial daughter.

Set in central Massachusetts, readers hear directly from a trio of narrators: Father Louie, daughter Lulu, and recently-deceased wife/mother Helen. Things get, shall we say, profane and heated.

Link here: https://www.girltalkhq.com/an-election-season-novel-for-those-trying-to-navigate-polarizing-times/