City of Charms

  You will all be relieved to know, I finally (10 months later) got rid of my Arabic blog title.  The new title is "City of Charms" and the URL is cityofcharms.blogspot.com.  You might think I chose the new title because Madrid is SO charming and because I am going to write a travel blog about all the great things here.  You would be wrong.  I chose the title because an agent who represents writers liked the title.  I met him at a writer's conference.  THE City of Charms from the writing conference was actually Houston.  Shhh! Don't tell anyone.  The professionals at the conference said I absolutely could not set a story in Houston.  It would be the kiss of death.   So now my stories are set in a fictional place called Poxum Crossing.  That's how people think of Houston, right?  Swampy, backwards and boring if not pestilential.

  I have loved every place I have ever lived, more for the small details of living there than the big tourist attractions.  Right now the sun has broken through the clouds to shine on the first snow of the season on the mountains.  I can see it from my window.