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Ghost orchard
Before the 1920s, the town of Manzanar—which means "apple orchard" in Spanish— was a place of abundance. Founded in 1910 in the high...
cherylaossola
May 1, 20191 min read
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Hiding places
When I was a kid, we'd visit my grandparents most summers. Their house, a white Victorian in the Italian section of Syracuse, New York,...
cherylaossola
Apr 18, 20192 min read
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Chapter 1, live!
The Other Stories is a fun trove of readings and interviews from the not-super-well-known author pool—and yeah, that includes me. Kudos...
cherylaossola
Apr 17, 20191 min read
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House of buried memories
In THE WILD IMPOSSIBILITY, Kira turns to her family's past as she tries to understand the bizarre dreams and visions she's having. The...
cherylaossola
Apr 12, 20191 min read
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Secrets
Secrets. We all have them, if not entire truths then fragments or details. Adults sometimes regard secrets as shameful or embarrassing,...
cherylaossola
Apr 4, 20191 min read
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Wishful thinking
In this excerpt from THE WILD IMPOSSIBILITY, the protagonist, Kira, has the second of many "daytime dreams," as she calls them—vivid...
cherylaossola
Mar 28, 20191 min read
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Q&A: writing, Italy, and more
Book blogger Randee Green, author of the Carrie Shatner mystery series, was kind enough to give me a presence on her site. Check out this...
cherylaossola
Mar 27, 20191 min read
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Where joy should be
Weddings are fantasies for some people, a little girl’s dream come true, every detail masterminded—the perfect dress, flowers chosen for...
cherylaossola
Mar 20, 20191 min read
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Looking for love
Do you remember your first love? Not a crush on a kid in elementary school or the fantasy of being with a celebrity, but real love for...
cherylaossola
Mar 7, 20192 min read
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Searching for serenity
In The Wild Impossibility, a backyard pond, home to koi and watched over by a statue of the Virgin Mary, is a key location for the book’s...
cherylaossola
Feb 27, 20191 min read
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Wearing the past
When does a piece of clothing become a costume? In a sense, clothing is always a costume, because every garment we wear projects an image...
cherylaossola
Feb 20, 20192 min read
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What's in a place?
Place. For me it’s one of the most important—and enjoyable—parts of writing fiction. This is where a writer can let loose with sensory...
cherylaossola
Feb 13, 20192 min read
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Surreal
Most of us, by the time we get to a certain point in life, have sat with a dying loved one, clasping their hand, trying to comprehend...
cherylaossola
Feb 6, 20191 min read
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Behind the Book, 4
When was the last time a sense of freedom made you feel as if you’d reinvented yourself? That’s what happens to 16-year-old Maddalena in...
cherylaossola
Jan 29, 20193 min read
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Behind the Book, 3
This is the third image in the series of illustrations of my novel, THE WILD IMPOSSIBILITY. (Note: someone recently asked me if these...
cherylaossola
Jan 22, 20192 min read
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Behind the Book, 2
This is the second image in the series of illustrations of my novel, THE WILD IMPOSSIBILITY. It’s a moment from a scene in a neonatal...
cherylaossola
Jan 16, 20192 min read
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Behind the Book, 1
To celebrate the upcoming publication of my novel, THE WILD IMPOSSIBILITY, I’ve commissioned watercolor sketches of moments in the book....
cherylaossola
Jan 8, 20193 min read
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