Ghost orchard
Before the 1920s, the town of Manzanar—which means "apple orchard" in Spanish— was a place of abundance. Founded in 1910 in the high...
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cherylaossola
- Apr 18, 2019
- 2 min
Hiding places
When I was a kid, we'd visit my grandparents most summers. Their house, a white Victorian in the Italian section of Syracuse, New York,...
cherylaossola
- Apr 17, 2019
- 1 min
Chapter 1, live!
The Other Stories is a fun trove of readings and interviews from the not-super-well-known author pool—and yeah, that includes me. Kudos...
cherylaossola
- Apr 12, 2019
- 1 min
House of buried memories
In THE WILD IMPOSSIBILITY, Kira turns to her family's past as she tries to understand the bizarre dreams and visions she's having. The...
cherylaossola
- Apr 4, 2019
- 1 min
Secrets
Secrets. We all have them, if not entire truths then fragments or details. Adults sometimes regard secrets as shameful or embarrassing,...
cherylaossola
- Mar 28, 2019
- 1 min
Wishful thinking
In this excerpt from THE WILD IMPOSSIBILITY, the protagonist, Kira, has the second of many "daytime dreams," as she calls them—vivid...
cherylaossola
- Mar 27, 2019
- 1 min
Q&A: writing, Italy, and more
Book blogger Randee Green, author of the Carrie Shatner mystery series, was kind enough to give me a presence on her site. Check out this...
cherylaossola
- Mar 20, 2019
- 1 min
Where joy should be
Weddings are fantasies for some people, a little girl’s dream come true, every detail masterminded—the perfect dress, flowers chosen for...
cherylaossola
- Mar 7, 2019
- 2 min
Looking for love
Do you remember your first love? Not a crush on a kid in elementary school or the fantasy of being with a celebrity, but real love for...
cherylaossola
- Feb 27, 2019
- 1 min
Searching for serenity
In The Wild Impossibility, a backyard pond, home to koi and watched over by a statue of the Virgin Mary, is a key location for the book’s...
cherylaossola
- Feb 20, 2019
- 2 min
Wearing the past
When does a piece of clothing become a costume? In a sense, clothing is always a costume, because every garment we wear projects an image...
cherylaossola
- Feb 13, 2019
- 2 min
What's in a place?
Place. For me it’s one of the most important—and enjoyable—parts of writing fiction. This is where a writer can let loose with sensory...
cherylaossola
- Feb 6, 2019
- 1 min
Surreal
Most of us, by the time we get to a certain point in life, have sat with a dying loved one, clasping their hand, trying to comprehend...
cherylaossola
- Jan 29, 2019
- 3 min
Behind the Book, 4
When was the last time a sense of freedom made you feel as if you’d reinvented yourself? That’s what happens to 16-year-old Maddalena in...
cherylaossola
- Jan 22, 2019
- 2 min
Behind the Book, 3
This is the third image in the series of illustrations of my novel, THE WILD IMPOSSIBILITY. (Note: someone recently asked me if these...
cherylaossola
- Jan 16, 2019
- 2 min
Behind the Book, 2
This is the second image in the series of illustrations of my novel, THE WILD IMPOSSIBILITY. It’s a moment from a scene in a neonatal...
cherylaossola
- Jan 8, 2019
- 3 min
Behind the Book, 1
To celebrate the upcoming publication of my novel, THE WILD IMPOSSIBILITY, I’ve commissioned watercolor sketches of moments in the book....