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Smarter Characters Than Authors?

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As a reader, I often wonder how much of the characters I love are based on their authors' lives. I imagine Sara Paretsky as an outspoken champion of those who struggle, just as is her character V.I. Warshawski. I wonder whether John Sandford has a lot in common with Lucas Davenport, the main character in his Prey novels. (Maybe better if he doesn't, depending which one you're reading.) I wish I could live in Three Pines and want to visit the town in Canada Louise Penny modeled it after. ...
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Rediscovering The Neighborhood Bookstore

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A few days ago I did something I haven't done in a long time--walked to my neighborhood bookstore, Sandmeyer's. I love the hardwood floors in Sandmeyer's. Some boards creak when you step on them. It also smells like wood, a smell I associate with books and therefore love. There were two reasons I hadn't visited there in forever. Drifting Away From The Bookstore One reason is that I've spent since April 22 recovering from a broken foot. A lot of that time I was in casts (photos of the ...
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Immigration, Family History, and The Stories We Tell

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With all the news and debate about immigration I’ve been thinking a lot lately about family history. My mom’s parents came to the United States from Poland in the early 1900s. My grandfather emigrated first. My grandmother planned to follow soon after, but due to changes in U.S. immigration law it was nearly a decade before she could. Two of her children traveled with her. She and my grandfather had four more children, including my mother, after settling in the U.S. For a long time,...
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5 Ways to Be More Productive — And More Relaxed — In The New Year

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Relax -- unlike some articles on productivity, the suggestions below are not meant to help you do more than you’re doing now. Instead, I hope they will help you enjoy your work more, relax more, and open up a little extra free time in the new year.1.  Know your best times of day for different tasksOur brains work differently at different times of the day. Figuring out the ideal time to perform a task can make it more enjoyable and lessen the amount of time you spend on it. Most people are m...
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In Which I Realize I Don’t Need To Use The Health Insurance Marketplace (Post No. 6 of Adventures in Health Insurance)

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In my continued journey to obtain the private health insurance now available due to The Affordable Care Act/Obamacare, I've been checking the status of my application at https://www.healthcare.gov/. After two weeks, it's still "in progress." I called and easily reached a real person at 1-800-318-2596. Unfortunately, he said there was no way to provide potential plan information until the application finished processing. At the very least, I'd hoped for an overview of the differences between...
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In Which I Probably Applied For Health Insurance (Post No. 5 of Adventures in Health Insurance)

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Since my first attempt, I've been periodically checking the Illinois insurance exchange to apply for health insurance coverage under Obamacare (The Affordable Care Act). I'm self-employed and have coverage now through an Illinois program that allowed me to purchase what is basically an extension of COBRA coverage. COBRA, for those not familiar with it, is a law allowing someone covered under a group employer health plan to extend that coverage for 18 months after leaving employmen...
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First Day Trying To Get On The Health Insurance Exchange (Post No. 4 of Adventures in Health Insurance)

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This morning I tried to get on the Illinois Health Insurance Exchange. As I talked about in previous posts, I am self-employed as an author and attorney.  I bought health insurance through an Illinois program that allows people to continue their COBRA coverage. I was turned down for individual health insurance, so I'm hoping that through the Exchange I'll have some more options for coverage.First, I needed to find the exchange. I googled "Illinois Get Covered" because I'd heard on the ...
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Virtual Camping Out in Line for the Health Insurance Exchange (Post No. 3 of Adventures in Health Insurance)

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Being both a writer and a lawyer, I have hard time turning off my brain (or maybe that's why I became a writer and a lawyer). As I wrote in my two previous posts, I'm self-employed, so I have no group insurance option, and I was turned down for individual health insurance. So I did some preliminary research on the exchanges. Below is what I learned.Differences in types of plans:  The main difference I found between the Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum plans that will be offered is the est...
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Once I Became Self-Employed (Post 2 of Adventures in Health Insurance)

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On a sunny day about about a month and a half before I planned to leave the large law firm where I worked, I played tennis for the first time in years.  I felt great.  I'd arranged for office space for my own practice, FindLaw had finished my firm website, and I'd set up my landline and bought a Blackberry.  As noted in the last post, I'd been very healthy, didn't smoke, and was the appropriate height and weight (see photo -- that's me).  But I'd had an exclusion a decad...
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