Susan Dormady Eisenberg

"Imagine a morning in late November. A coming of winter morning more than twenty years ago."

It's my favorite opening in fiction, the first two lines of Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory" (1956), which I return to each December the way someone else might revisit O'Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" or Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." I introduced this 27-page story to my daughter when she was only five, reading aloud from the 1996 Modern Library edition, a slim blue volume that also includes "The Thanksgiving Visitor" (1968) and "One Christmas" (1982). This collection was out of print for a while, but it has been reissued. Read More 

Launching a blog--or a web site--is an act of faith similar to writing an article or even a book. Will anyone read it? Will anyone leave a comment? Why bother adding MY voice to the millions of voices already chattering in cyberspace?

There are no easy answers to these questions except one: writers write. It's what I've known since childhood when I discovered my extreme delight in stringing words together. My desire to write has only increased with age, but now I also realize there's a responsibility that comes with the drive and, yes, talent. To be heard, writers need to say things worth reading...worth thinking about.

Today, however, as I draft my first-ever blog, I want to revel in the shimmering and amazing fact that I have endured. I've been rejected many, many times, and I'm still standing; I've been buffeted by the winds of literary change and I'm still working and hoping. Over time I have learned to heed the sage advice of comedian/philosopher, Andy Andrews, who tells us to, "Persist without exception."

I do, and I will. And I thank you for visiting me here and supporting my journey because without readers, a writer is neither happy nor complete. I'm grateful for your company on this leg of the trip. I hope we'll help each other persevere in meeting our separate goals.  Read More