From Alcott to Zott: How Women Are (Still!) Both Too Much and Not Enough for Commercial Fiction
This is the true story of two U.S. based book PR firms firing me for my women co-protagonists being too “complicated.” The very women characters in my novel now celebrated by Publishers Weekly , Kirkus , the Times Literary Supplement , LoveReading , GoodReads , and…
The Beats Broke the Rules. They Also Broke the Women
Recently I visited the Beat Museum in my San Francisco North Beach neighborhood. It’s just a few blocks from my home. The Beat Generation has long been held up as the patron saints of rebellion — the men who tore through mid-century America with notebooks, Benzedrine,…
Mirror Mirror: How Social Media Feeds the Ego but Starves the Soul (and Your 401k Account)
After 20 years on LinkedIn, I have over 35,000 followers (as of this writing) on the platform. When I made a splashy, high-performing announcement that I’d started an Instagram account (@santaluciasf – at the persistent nudging of the PR team for my major novel…
Bursting the Mimosa Bubble
One Mothers’ Day, my sons made me a messy fruit salad. Strawberries, bananas, blueberries—even a sprig of mint. They served it with burnt toast, silly grins, sticky fingers, and the kind of pride that made me tear up. It was sweet. It was perfect. And it had…
Have You Heard? Cringe Is The New Cool
The Cringey Superpower Women Aren’t Using (And How to get your caped groove on – read more here)!