A monthly look behind the stories in Embassy Kid: An American Foreign Service Family Memoir, the view from my writing desk as I share the book, and a preview of what I’m working on. What I’m reading and what I’m watching. And a new video of Kumba, our rescue Lab and therapy dog!
More Pictures from Caracas
Readers are clamoring for the images of the young Amerson family that is the protagonist of EMBASSY KID. Here, as promised, is the baby sister, Susie, who arrived in Caracas on New Year’s Eve, 1956. We were each other’s constant companions, beginning in the arms of precious Fina. Camila Acosta’s illustration was inspired by this photograph.
St. Paul Review
I was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, still home to my extended family and enough thoughtful readers that the Pioneer Press is among the dwindling number of newspapers still reviewing books. Mary Ann Grossmann’s lovely review places EMBASSY KID among “non-fiction gems.” You can betcha I’ll be in the Twin Cities in 2026!
reconnecting with my embassy people
I was invited to a fall luncheon by the Florida Chapter of the Foreign Service Retirees Association at which we heard from Ambassador Liliana Ayalde, who served both at the US Agency for International Development (USAID, closed by the Trump administration) and at the State Department (including as ambassador to Brazil and to Paraguay).
Her perspective on the current administration’s decimation of the diplomatic corps and elimination of international assistance was heart-felt and sobering. My own thoughts on the topic appear in my blog post Relinquishing America’s Leadership.
Read it! Write it!
I was among 20 South Florida authors sharing their work at the Delray Beach Public Library’s first Read it! Write it! event on Sunday, October 26. Loads of fellow writers sharing their craft tips, many readers eager to peruse the books for sale throughout the room, and great moments of support all around. Thank you, Heidi Hess, for your vision!
We’ll be back even stronger at Read it! Write it! Wellington in June.
On the Road with EMBASSY KID
This pretty pink cover has made its way around the world! Readers in Spain and Australia and travelers to Jordan and Japan have shared these pictures
What I’m Watching & Reading
I binge watched season three of Netflix’ political thriller The Diplomat while I was recovering from a post-weeding allergy assault last week and needed to disappear into a story. Keri Russell–who made such a splash as a Russian sleeper spy in The Americans–is the American Ambassador to the Court of St. James with a complicated marriage, a deadly international incident for which America turn out to be responsible, and hair that doesn’t look coifed. Neither she nor any of her staff have children or “trailing spouses”, all of which make real diplomats’ lives both more complicated and richer.
My friend and former Voice of America correspondent Al Pessin — who’s new political thriller Body Man can be advance ordered— was stationed in London and tells me that the ambassadorial Residence and the American Embassy in The Diplomat are the actual buildings. I like the fact that viewers can see that the embassy is the office where staff include CIA and other attachés, and the Residence is the ambassador’s home. Other diplomatic staff have much humbler abodes. When my father was the Public Affairs Officer, heading up the US Information Agency work for a country, we lived in entertainment-worthy spaces. I knew how to work a cocktail party by the time I was ten.
I caught this delightful interview of author Nicholas Sparks on the PBS NewsHour. It’s telling that the author of 23 novels (including his debut! The Notebook) and two non-fiction books has his name larger than that of his co-author M. Night Shyamalan and the title on the cover of their new book, Remain. And yet, he says, every time he finishes a book he’s sure that he has nothing more to say. Talk about humble. Remain is on my next-buy list.
Kumba at Work
Our weekly visit to the nearby senior facility is just an hour long but seems to stretch into infinity as our rescue Lab and therapy dog, Kumba, makes deep connections with residents, visiting families, and staff alike. This was especially so during this Halloween Week!
His recovery from a traumatic stay in a shelter intertwined with my recovery from a traumatic illness in Amsterdam, both of us benefitting from the restorative power of love, as I wrote in a recent blog. The long, slow road to complete rehabilitation
See You Next Month!
A new podcast is coming out, a new ad campaign is bursting forth, and the holidays are around the corner! Let the merriment begin!