“Family patters—like family secrets—repeat themselves.” ~ Iyanla Vanzant There has been a rash of books lately on the topic of family secrets. Why? Your guess is as good as mine, but I’m sure part of it has to do with the fact that children weren’t included in a lot of family news when I was… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Books by Sidney S. Stark
Burdens of Privilege
“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” —Plutarch It was over a decade ago that I sat in my first writers’ workshop at the Stonybrook Writers’ Conference. The almost round tables were configured to promote emotional connectivity and support, all good things when one’s writing is being… Continue Reading
Historical Preservation
“History is the witness of the times… the life of memory…”— Marcus Tullius Cicero Preserving the past is linked most often to physical assets, such as buildings, or artifacts like paintings, jewelry or utensils. But what of the people? How do we preserve the memories that tell us about those no longer with us? By… Continue Reading
Warp and Weft
“We don’t accomplish anything in this world alone… and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one’s life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that creates something.”—Sandra Day O’Connor For many years, I’ve considered layering in writing as a process much akin to that in the visual… Continue Reading
Badass!
A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.-John C. Maxwell How can a word used to describe someone have such different meanings depending on the gender of the one being defined? That just proves how much discrimination there is in society’s expectations for its different members. I’ve focused… Continue Reading
Open Invitation
“Not all those who wander are lost.” – J.R.R. Tolkien Some powerful examples of the serendipity and discovery of research dropped in my lap recently with the announcement that the man who occupied much of my last book, Tried As Silver, and was an implied romantic connection for the protagonist (we’ll never really know), had… Continue Reading