Diane Masiello is a part-time writer and a full-time mom, wife, daughter, and daughter-in-law. Like many who are currently part of the “sandwich generation,” – those who still have kids at home but are also taking care of aging parents—she is also trying to find the time to carve out some space for her own passions. In her earlier life she earned a Ph.D. in Education from New York University, and worked as an Instructor of English, then Assistant Professor of English at the University of Tampa. In 2003 she left academia to raise her two daughters—the longest, hardest job she’s ever held, and the most rewarding. During her time in academia she edited and contributed to a variety of academic publications, but her greatest joy was the publication of her first short fantasy story, “The Sunspot,” in CrossTime Science Fiction Anthology Vol. II. She has her own blog, “Afternoons with Coffee Spoons,” which started as a mommy blog but ended when she realized her daughters had become old enough that writing about them without their permission seemed invasive. She has just completed her first young adult fantasy novel, Keeper, and is starting on the maze-like road toward publication. She is thrilled to be a part of The Gloria Sirens and looks forward to the conversations her blog posts may inspire.
It seems almost impossible to be thankful when everything is falling apart around us. . . . Yet conventional wisdom tells us, “It’s not happy people who are grateful. It’s grateful people who are happy.” Interestingly, recent scientific research backs this up.
I’ve had a problem with Halloween for quite awhile. If you’ve read my earlier posts about how we are becoming a culture of death rather than a culture of love, you might […]
During Florida’s latest hurricane scare, I downloaded a local news station’s app. Now, every day, on my phone, I get headlines about mass murders, murder-suicides, and violence of all sorts. I do […]
Once again this weekend the news was full of stories of yet more gun violence taking innocent lives and all I could think was this: anger and fear are winning. People joke […]
I’ve spent almost a decade of my life on Facebook. Now, I think, it’s time to change my online presence.
I’ve been inconvenienced by the world’s concept of working hours since I started school at age four. I had a few blissful years where my daily activities accommodated my night-owl tendencies, but by and large I have gone along with society’s need to start things at what my body naturally feels is a ridiculous time of the morning, and I’ve accommodated. At this point I don’t care whether we stay in standard time or daylight savings time. I just want the time changes to stop.
How do I hear God’s “still small voice” when I am scared of silence? I despaired thinking that to hear God I had to get comfortable with silence. It seemed impossible. A […]
