Lily comes out of retirement to run one last op while on the run from her former employers in U.S. intelligence, and to reexamine her legacy as a field agent and as an American in foreign lands. Throughout her career she was known as frequently impulsive and even insubordinate, but also an effective and loyal […]
I started reading Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski series because my mom was a fan. I particularly remember when she read Tunnel Vision (1994) and was fascinated with the lower bowels of Chicago, a network of utility and freight tunnels beneath the Loop. I have her copy of the short story collection Windy City Blues (1995), […]
Aunt Pam recently sent me two packets of letters, postcards, drawings and photos that I had sent her over the last 40 years. I’m happy to say I was delighted by my youthful musings more often than I was embarrassed. The letters cover my childhood in Donovan, my time at IMSA and Connecticut College, and […]
Simon is a high school sophomore and just started taking a graphic design class—I’m so excited! Since he’s learning to use Illustrator, I showed him the drawing above, which I made with the pen tool based on a webcam selfie in 2002. He was actually a bit impressed, high praise from a teen to his […]
April has been mild and I have been enjoying the beautiful city of Chicago. I have never regretted moving to this city at the end of 1996. I was not made for small town life. Give me the sights, sounds and strangers of a world-class metropolis! In 2009 we moved to the suburbs, and I […]
Tonight Jim and I were able to attend an event hosted by Exile in Bookville with musician Neko Case for her memoir, The Harder I Fight The More I Love You. Neko is one of our favorite musicians. I saw her perform starting in the late 90s, memorably outside of Schuba’s where I first heard […]