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.
Some creatures survive, some become extinct. But no matter how great the ecological disaster, the paradox called life keeps on defying entropy and trying to perfect itself. Hard times just seem to help evolution. –Julian May
The people who keep coping, keep trying, no matter how many blows fate takes at them. Nobody’ll make a song about them, but they’re heroes all the same. –Mercedes Lackey
While most people think about food this time of year, I contemplate the end of the world.
I think here I will leave you. it has come to seem there is no perfect ending. Indeed, there are infinite endings. Or perhaps, once one begins, there are only endings. –Louise Gluck
I had a sudden notion of why history is such a mess: humans do not live long enough. We only learn from experience and have no time to use it in a continuous and sensible way. –Martha Gellhorn
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It robs today of its strength. –Corrie Ten Boom
Let gratitude be the pillow on which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good. –Maya Angelou
What separates privilege from entitlement is gratitude. –Brene Brown
Trust no friend without faults, and love a woman, but no angel. –Doris Lessing
True forgiveness is when you can say, “Thank you for the experience.” –Oprah Winfrey
The Gloria Sirens 