

From a Cucumber to a Cure
I met Arthur Cohen and his wife Janet at last year's Compassionate Care ALS gala in Boston. We sat next to each other and chatted throughout the night. I adored him immediately. He told me about being a photographer, seeing Hamilton, and his PickALS project to raise money for ALS--"From a cucumber to a cure." We kept in touch through FaceTime and email, Arthur typing with his eyeballs. Here's an email from me to him after that gala: Hi Arthur, I just said the same thing--how


ALS Film Review
So Much, So Fast This was the first documentary about ALS that I watched. An inspirational and heartbreaking story about architect/builder Stephen Heywood, diagnosed with ALS at age 29, and his brilliant brother Jamie, who became obsessively driven to find a cure. I fell in love with the Heywoods. I wanted to be part of their family and Jamie’s renegade quest. Jamie founded ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI), the world’s first non-profit biotechnology company, a plac


Notes from My Writing Journal: Walking with Elise
Chapter 7, baby!! Okay, what happens next? We need Karina and Richard in the same room again. Actually, I probably need a chapter about her and her life—home, teaching, with Grace. What is unsettled in her and why is seeing Richard again such a necessary risk? What does she want? I need to work more on her backstory, make her three dimensional, more believable. How does she spend her days? Who is her best friend? A neighbor? What would this person lend to Karina and the narra