zwischenraum

A blog about the in-between—the small (and not-so-small) moments in business and marketing, culture, politics, food, travel, and more. Zwischenraum takes its name from a German word that translates to “the space between things,” an artsy-sounding concept that to me speaks volumes about everyday life.

  • Join Me for Two Travel Author Readings in November
    On November 13 and 14, I’ll be giving two author readings from my recent narrative travel work, in a pair of Zoom-based literary events for local organizations. This summer, I served as the 2020 Writer-in-Residence at Arrowhead, the historic home of Herman Melville in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. For two months, I had the opportunity to work,…
  • Snapshot Travel Guide: Castle Hill, Ispwich, MA
    Who’d have guessed a place like this could be the result of a fortune made in toilets and other plumbing fixtures? Say hello (or perhaps cheerio) to Castle Hill on the Crane Estate, a stellar Trustees of Reservation property located right on the Atlantic Coast in Ipwich, Massachusetts. Castle Hill in Ipswich is one of the…
  • How My New York Kitchen Became the Connection to Madrid
    A warm, slightly sour aroma fills the kitchen on a Tuesday morning. My husband, Floren, has made it out of bed before me, and he’s baking bread. This is a rarity not because he’s Spanish and often stays up, a book propped on his lap, till nearly midnight. It’s unusual because our jobs normally separate…
  • Snapshot Travel Guide: Exeter, New Hampshire
    My husband and I have jobs that keep us separated by a cool couple hundred miles during the week. I’m in upstate New York, and until recently, he was living out on the North Shore of Massachusetts, an area I happen to love. When his company announced they were picking up stakes and moving to…
  • Snapshot Travel Guide: Hoosick Falls, New York
    For nearly a year, I’ve been working on a project with Columbia Economic Development Corp. (CEDC) that has taken me all around Columbia County in upstate New York, to write travelogues about each of the county’s often-underrated towns. Because I’ve been spending so much time getting to know Columbia County, I haven’t given my own…
  • The Quarantine Kitchen: Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
    I’m not going to sugarcoat it: we’re all getting a little punchy, and we’re only 19 days or so into our COVID-19 social-distancing efforts. I’ll skip the commentary on what this means about us as a species; even a dedicated introvert like me can admit that wanting to stay in is a lot different than…
  • Snapshot Travel Guide: Portsmouth, New Hampshire
    Out and about isn’t a phrase I’m using much these days, as we complete our second full week of near-lockdown during the COVID-19 outbreak in New York State—unless I’m referring to taking a walk around my neighborhood or on my town’s rail trail. Like many avid travelers, I’m feeling the strain of being, well, constrained,…
  • Book Review: Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage
      The pantheon of horror fiction has included several prominent women authors, from Mary Shelley to Daphne du Maurier and Anne Rice. But it has long been a man’s game, usually told from a man’s perspective. When male horror writers’ main characters are women, they’re often prototypical Good Moms, rather than fully realized people—that is,…
  • Why I’m Going to the 2020 Women in Travel Summit—and Why You Should Join Me
      For the past six years, I’ve submitted speaking proposals to a small group of hand-picked conferences—ones I know will not only provide good exposure, but will also allow me to network with professionals in my field and learn something new and valuable. As I’ve discovered where my time and effort (and travel dollars) are…
  • Book Review: Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
      There are a few universal truths about divorce. It’s always unequal, with one person doing the leaving and the other person being left. It’s a legal headache, from the dissolution of the relationship to the division of everything from assets to furniture, to financial entanglements like alimony and child support. If there are kids…