Tag: Writing

recent writings: huffpost (X2) & msnow

I’ve been fortunate to have recently had essays of mine published in HuffPost and MS Now.

MS Now & Christina Applegate

Bad Moms. Christina Applegate’s acting in that film as the tightly-wound, alpha mom is my favorite role of hers. Her work as a local TV news reporter in Anchorman is a close second.

But now she’s playing the role of a best selling author with the publication of her autobiography, You with the Sad Eyes. In that book, she discusses the impact of multiple sclerosis on her life and how it effectively ended her acting career as she was in the midst of filming the TV series Dead to Me. Inspired by her authentic and raw approach, I wrote an essay about how her frankness gives the rest of us living with MS permission to follow her lead.

An excerpt:

In a recent interview on “Good Morning America,” host Robin Roberts asked Applegate if she’s still grieving her 2021 diagnosis. The actor said that the disease still does “suck,” and that none of the people she knows with MS would ever say that they’re “great.”

“There is no ‘great,’” she said. “There’s a better day and a less s––––y day. … Where am I with acceptance? Not at all. I hate it.”

This wasn’t a “woe is me” response. It was real. It was something I’d say if I was being truthful about living with relapsing remitting MS during summer days when I’m trapped inside air-conditioned spaces so I don’t become nauseated, lose limb strength or become cognitively fuzzy as my vision becomes impaired. It. Sucks.

Read the whole piece here.

HuffPost: An Angry American at the Olympics & Chronically Ill Affected by Health Insurance Cuts

The folks at HuffPost were kind enough to publish two pieces I’ve written over the past few months.

One essay was about a shocking interaction I had at the ice skating pairs medal competition at the Milan Winter Olympics with a fellow American who was triggered by the fact that I was wearing a face mask (to protect a family member who is currently undergoing cancer treatment). While I had numerous concerns prior to heading to Italy for my once-in-a-lifetime Olympic trip with my spouse, this bizarre run-in with an American who was filled with political acrimony wasn’t on my Bingo card.

An excerpt:

I’d traveled across the Atlantic Ocean, fretting about my son and about how U.S. citizens would be received at an international event, only to be subjected to vitriol from an American who’d packed her divisive politics with her.

… Since that night at the skating rink, I’ve wondered about the woman who sat next to me. Did she spend her time in Milan spreading the same, tired cruelty we’re experiencing stateside? Did she experience any joy other than feeling as though she “owned” a lib?

Read the whole piece here.

Late last year HuffPost published an essay I wrote about the irreversible impact of the decision to pass a federal budget that didn’t include government subsidies to help 22 million folks pay for their Affordable Care Act premiums. To MS patients — including a woman I interviewed for my book Uncomfortably Numb 2 — the interruption in their medical care can lead to permanent neurological damage that could impact their ability to work, to walk, to think.

An excerpt:

I wonder if the eight Democratic-aligned senators who voted to reopen the government based on the mere promise of a vote on ACA subsidies — the same lawmakers who this summer passionately waxed on about the dire consequences to Americans’ health if the One Big Beautiful Bill passed — would be willing to leave the fate of their loved ones’ health to the whims of Republicans who for years have aspired to plunge a dagger through the ACA. Would they be willing to risk the irreparable worsening of a loved one’s chronic illness (like the loss of mobility, of manual dexterity, of vision, all MS symptoms) on the pledge of good-faith negotiations with a party whose members have demonstrated they are faithless?

Read the whole piece here.

comfortably chatting about uncomfortably numb 2 & louie on the rocks with jon and john

I was fortunate enough to speak with two different hosts about my two latest books, Uncomfortably Numb 2: An Anthology for Newly-Diagnosed MS Patients, and my novel, Louie on the Rocks.

On the week when we mark World MS Day, RealTalk MS host Jon Strum and I chatted about my new anthology of MS patient stories, about the power of advocacy for patients who often feel powerless in the face of their illness, and about trying to come to terms with the uncertainty that is the multiple sclerosis diagnosis.

Meanwhile, The Culture Buzz host John Busbee and I discussed my inadvertently of-the-moment novel, Louie on the Rocks, a vodka-soaked tale about an estranged father-daughter duo on opposite ends of the political spectrum.

I appreciate the spotlight these two folks put on my latest creations.

an odyssey through politically-fraught family moments: book event in western massachusetts

Reuniting with deeply-admired colleagues is always a joy. Reuniting with colleagues who leave you feeling like a rock star is utterly fabulous.

Such was my feeling after Suzanne Strempek Shea — my former newspaper colleague, writing mentor and fellow MFA creative nonfiction writing instructor — interviewed me for a book talk about my novel, Louie on the Rocks, at the Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley. Suzanne has an uncanny ability of asking incisive questions that frequently give me pause and make me wonder why I’ve never thought of that particular angle before.

Our back-and-forth, as well as the questions from attendees, focused a great deal on the subjects of my vacillating between different writing genres, and how I rendered on the page an authentic depiction of people who hold different political beliefs than I hold. That’s a question I’m getting a lot. It’s no secret that I’m adamantly opposed to all things MAGA and what’s happening under the Trump administration, but when I was developing the character of Louie Francis, I placed my personal politics inside a box and shoved aside. My charge was to create a fully-developed character and figure out how he thought. Additionally, I wanted to illustrate that, in spite of our currently polarized climate, Louie wasn’t and shouldn’t be perceived as just one thing, as just a MAGA dude. He was a good and supportive husband, a loving son-in-law, a reliable employee, and a respected volunteer in his community. Writing Louie required me to think more fulsomely about the layers and texture of his life, not simply through the lens of his politics.

Afterward during the book signing portion, I had the chance to chat with folks and was thrilled to see my very first friend in my hometown of West Springfield there in attendance — Gina! — as well as two pals from my UMass-Amherst days. And the support from the Bay Path University MFA in Creative Nonfiction community, wow, it made me feel blessed. In addition to Suzanne, there was her husband Tommy Shea (who mentored me when I was a young newspaper reporter), former MFA director Leanna James Blackwell, and Anne Pinkerton, with whom I had classes when I earned my own MFA from Bay Path.

upcoming ‘louie’ events

Lots of book events coming up to promote Louie on the Rocks.

Incredible writers — with connections to western Massachusetts, to UMass Amherst, and to Bay Path University’s MFA program in creative nonfiction — have graciously agreed to appear with me. I’m very appreciative of their time.

Saturday, Feb. 15, 4 p.m. Tatnuck Bookseller on Lyman Street in Westborough: Book launch with Worcester writer Kevin Koczwara

Wednesday, Feb. 19, 7 p.m. via Zoom at Bay Path University’s Hatch Library (go to https://www.baypath.edu/…/jumping-genres…/2025-02-19/ for the Zoom link, email jobaker@baypath.edu, or see QR code on flyer below): Book discussion led by writer Kate Whouley, with writer Anna Mantzaris and me.

Tuesday, March 4, 7 p.m. at Porter Square Books, 50 Liberty Drive, Boston: Book discussion & signing with writer Melanie Brooks.

Thursday, March 6, 7 p.m. at Odyssey Bookshop, 9 College Street, South Hadley, Mass.: Book discussion & signing with writer Suzanne Strempek Shea.

Wednesday, June 11, 6:30 p.m.: Book reading at the Southborough Library, 25 Main Street, Southborough, Mass.

author suzanne strempek shea lauds ‘louie’

When I sat down to my newly-assigned desk in the middle of the bustling and messy Springfield, Mass. offices of what was then called The Union-News, I was unaware that, diagonally across from me was a fellow reporter with whom I would go on to develop a long-term professional relationship.

Suzanne Strempek Shea, who became an award-winning author and writing instructor, would be the reason why I enrolled in the Bay Path University creative nonfiction MFA program she helped create. She’d also be the reason why I later became an instructor for that same program. She’d eventually blurb nearly every book of mine as I followed in her footsteps of leaving daily reporting and plunging into the worlds of writing and teaching.

I remain grateful for her willingness to carefully read and blurb my work, including this one she wrote for Louie on the Rocks:

A truly cautionary tale for anyone who worries for the welfare of a vulnerable elder, Louie on the Rocks reads like the real life that Meredith O’Brien chronicled so skillfully in her newspaper days. Here she presents both sides of the case for and against alcoholic, widowed retiree Louie Francis’ ability to run his own life, an existence also pocked by a drug-addicted girlfriend half his age who fills his need for companionship and MAGA-wear while emptying his bank account. Narrator Louie’s chapters are interwoven with those bearing the distinct voices and points of view of his gay daughter grieving her mother and trying to do the best for a surviving parent who returns only hatred, and his late wife, who watches from beyond while recounting her life and the parts she played in making both father are daughter who they’ve become, and might yet be. The story is further enriched by the character and characters of the author’s Central Massachusetts, and by her first-hand knowledge of small-town life and all its complexities.

Thank you Suzanne!

author leslie gray streeter on ‘louie’

Baltimore-based author Leslie Gray Streeter and I met one another in 2020 just when our memoirs — mine, Uncomfortably Numb, and hers, Black Widow — hit the shelves. Our book promo plans upended by the pandemic, we joined a group of 70+ writers who all had books released at the same time, and we collectively tried to help one another.

A few years later, I met Leslie in person when I invited members of our writers’ group, Lockdown Lit, to a group book event at Tatnuck Bookseller in Westborough, Mass.

When it came time to solicit blurbs for Louie on the Rocks, her name immediately popped into my head because she and I are frequently liking one another’s posts on social media.

I also had the pleasure of reading an advance copy of her forthcoming novel, Family and Other Calamities. I LOVED it and can’t wait for others to have the delightful experience.

Here’s her full blurb:

Louie On The Rocks is a frank and, at times, blisteringly funny testament to the corroding influences of grief, addiction , polarization, regret and emotional abandonment. It’s told with multiple vivid voices giving witness to a tragic chain of events that might be stoppable – but probably aren’t.

— Leslie Gray Streeter

talking memoir writing at bay path university

I recently had the pleasure of participating in the Friends of the Hatch Library author series at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Mass. — where I teach in the MFA in creative nonfiction program, a program from which I graduated in 2017.

I discussed my medical memoir, Uncomfortably Numb, read an excerpt that took place in Martha’s Vineyard aloud, as well as fielded myriad questions about writing, research, and inspiration.

Thank you Bay Path for inviting me.

sunday, march 14, 11 a.m.: catch me on a virtual authors’ st. patrick’s day parade

I’ll be getting my Irish on during the Facebook-based Write Review’s 1st Annual Virtual St. Patrick’s Day Parade/Book Club Tour/Hop on Sunday, March 14 at 11 a.m.

A ton of authors, with some connection to the Emerald Isle, will be participating in the day-long festival of all things books and Irish. (Plus there will be giveaways.) Join The Write Reviewers Book Club on Facebook in order to participate.

I’ll be speaking during the 11 a.m. panel about the Irish DNA of my characters, focusing on the protagonist in Mortified: a novel about oversharing, the stressed out Maggie Kelly.