Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb
POSTING Q&As WITH AUTHORS AND ILLUSTRATORS SINCE 2012! Check back often for new Q&As, and for daily historical factoids about books. On Facebook at www.facebook.com/deborahkalbbooks. Follow me on Instagram @deborahskalb. Sue Camaione is the author of the new memoir The Practical Seductress: How I Learned to Take My Hat and Run. She lives in Bethesda, […]
The Myth, Mystery, and Magic of Valentine’s Day: A Semi-Satirical Dive into the Holiday of Love (and Excessive Chocolate Consumption)
Ah, Valentine’s Day—when we collectively decide that love, lust, and lubes (yes, you heard me) deserve their own holiday. As I sit drafting a romantic comedy, Twice Upon a Time, about a 50-year-old newly divorced woman who is navigating her best friend’s challenge to date 20 people in 20 days when an old lover returns […]
Addicted to Advice
Knowing that hundreds of millions read advice columns daily, with additional how-to improve yourself videos and podcasts, I began to feel a little less guilty in my obsession. I’ve indulged in other forms of advisement over the decades: Talk and Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Mindfulness Meditation, Landmark Forum, Gottman Couple’s Counseling, Neurolinguistic Visualization, and even Hypnotism—the […]
Sex and Sexuality – An Homage to Dr. Ruth
“An orgasm a day keeps the doctor away.” “What do you do if a woman is frigid?” asked the man in the auditorium. “No such thing,” Dr. Ruth Westheimer said in her distinctive German accent. “We do not use that word. We say ‘responsive’ to sex,” she added, rolling the ‘r’ in a lengthy sibilation. […]
DoppleMadgester – My Life as Madonna
Recently, as I stood admiring the plethora of differently sized and shaped phalluses throughout human history displayed on the walls of the Penis room at the Barcelona Erotic Museum, I could see a couple eyeing a video positioned on the wall then back to me. Curious, I glanced up to see a half-clothed Madonna in […]
Our Psychedelic Honeymoon – A Valentine’s Day Special
Why Psychedelics? I, and my newly minted husband Rod, recently embarked upon a Psychedelic Honeymoon Retreat in Alicante, Spain. Full confession, we had engaged in the year prior to our wedding in several therapy-assisted drug experiments: MDMA (love drug), psilocybin (magic mushrooms), and the mother of them all—Ayahuasca (from the Amazon jungle). What was missing […]
Ken vs Jo Koy in the Barbie Universe
While raising first a daughter and then a son, I soon discovered an all-encompassing destructive sexism in our culture, regardless of gender birth or identity. Since my daughter is older and female and rebelled against any ‘girly-girl’ stereotypes, I was on alert for any double standards hindering her abilities and education. But, wow, my true […]
A Toast to Jezebels
Why are so many stories in the world’s literary canon on women cheating, written by men? Why do so many of these female heroines end up jumping from trains, dying from consumption, or drowning in lakes? Simply review a few classics: Wuthering Heights, Anna Karenina, Moulin Rouge, Hamlet where heroines wear the Jezebel label. Let’s […]
Simply the Best – Memories of Tina
A miracle happened at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC in November of 2008. My teenaged daughter, throwing her hands in the air, began a syncopated clapping in time with the surrounding much older crowd. I could see the excitement in her eyes, the swaying of her new womanly hips, singing along to music written […]
The Pursuit of Pleasure – Musings on the March
