cherylaossolaMay 1, 20191 minGhost orchardBefore the 1920s, the town of Manzanar—which means "apple orchard" in Spanish— was a place of abundance. Founded in 1910 in the high...
cherylaossolaApr 18, 20192 minHiding placesWhen I was a kid, we'd visit my grandparents most summers. Their house, a white Victorian in the Italian section of Syracuse, New York,...
cherylaossolaApr 17, 20191 minChapter 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...
cherylaossolaApr 12, 20191 minHouse of buried memoriesIn THE WILD IMPOSSIBILITY, Kira turns to her family's past as she tries to understand the bizarre dreams and visions she's having. The...
cherylaossolaApr 4, 20191 minSecretsSecrets. We all have them, if not entire truths then fragments or details. Adults sometimes regard secrets as shameful or embarrassing,...
cherylaossolaMar 28, 20191 minWishful thinkingIn this excerpt from THE WILD IMPOSSIBILITY, the protagonist, Kira, has the second of many "daytime dreams," as she calls them—vivid...
cherylaossolaMar 27, 20191 minQ&A: writing, Italy, and moreBook blogger Randee Green, author of the Carrie Shatner mystery series, was kind enough to give me a presence on her site. Check out this...
cherylaossolaMar 20, 20191 minWhere 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...
cherylaossolaMar 7, 20192 minLooking for loveDo 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...
cherylaossolaFeb 27, 20191 minSearching for serenityIn 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...
cherylaossolaFeb 20, 20192 minWearing the pastWhen does a piece of clothing become a costume? In a sense, clothing is always a costume, because every garment we wear projects an image...
cherylaossolaFeb 13, 20192 minWhat'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...
cherylaossolaFeb 6, 20191 minSurrealMost 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...
cherylaossolaJan 29, 20193 minBehind the Book, 4When 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...
cherylaossolaJan 22, 20192 minBehind the Book, 3This is the third image in the series of illustrations of my novel, THE WILD IMPOSSIBILITY. (Note: someone recently asked me if these...
cherylaossolaJan 16, 20192 minBehind the Book, 2This 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...
cherylaossolaJan 8, 20193 minBehind the Book, 1To celebrate the upcoming publication of my novel, THE WILD IMPOSSIBILITY, I’ve commissioned watercolor sketches of moments in the book....