In June, I began building a new website and updating social media sites from a composer/writer frame to an indie children’s book author heading toward two book launches. The ins and outs of using social media as a marketing tool have become a dreaded specter of my daily existence. Long before I began building my new Facebook (“FB”) and Instagram pages, I received notice that FB was taking down my old professional page since it had been unused for over three years. I wasn’t co

The aria speaks of life among the destitute in 19th-century New York City. That time is returning all over this country because women are being forced to have children even if they can't afford them. All "those preaching moral reform" do little or nothing to see that a child that is born is given a chance to lead a self-sustaining, productive life. My mother was one of those children. Her mother died in rural Colorado during childbirth in the depression, leaving several orpha

Late Bloomer | Sassy Senior | Mary Wesley (1912-2002)

"The Cult of Domesticity" or "True Womanhood," was established for the wives and daughters of the white American middle- and upper-class power-hungry during the antebellum period. Proper, partially educated wives became status symbols for their husbands. At the opposite end of the spectrum, women, married or unmarried, lacked the means to remain "pure.” Many servant girls were impregnated, often against their will, then tossed out the door to a workhouse or hyper-religious mi

The myth of the Three-Part Goddess has many sources and traditions, many associated with the phases of the moons or changing of seasons. I love this tradition because it is non-ageist in honoring each of the different phases of a woman’s life. From child to maiden, to mother, to crone, each must feel secure in and own their own time. Contrary to some opinions, the word “crone” actually comes from the word “crown.” She is the carrier of knowledge and held in high regard, for s