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Jo Maeder

Author

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Recent Posts

  • 2020: The Ups and Downs, a New Year’s Eve Invitation, and Wedding Photos!
  • Q&A: Jill McCorkle on dolls, dollhouses, tiny objects and what they have to do with writing and life
  • How My French Work Exchange Journey Led to a New Life and Love
  • Chapter 1 of Zerk ‘Em and Pull the Push Rods: A Wry Squint at Aviation in the Mid-20th Century
  • The Tale of the Squirrel-proof Bird Feeder

Archives

2020: The Ups and Downs, a New Year’s Eve Invitation, and Wedding Photos!

December 17, 2020 by Jo Maeder 2 Comments

A Year Like No Other How many times in 2020 did you say: “What a year!” I hope you didn’t lose a loved one to Covid-19 or meet with financial ruin. Surely, someone reading this has and you have my deepest sympathies. Please keep reading. I have something to invite you to at the end that might be […]

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Filed Under: Birds, Grief, Love, Pandemic, Travel Tagged With: Love, pandemic, Planner5D, reset, Travel, what matters

Q&A: Jill McCorkle on dolls, dollhouses, tiny objects and what they have to do with writing and life

September 9, 2020 by Jo Maeder Leave a Comment

    “I have always loved dolls. And yes, there are still within the love, those that have creeped me out!” – Jill McCorkle Jill McCorkle is a bestselling, award-winning author of unforgettable novels and short stories. She was a Briggs-Copeland Lecturer in Fiction at Harvard, where she also chaired the department of creative writing. […]

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Filed Under: Author Q&A, Blog, Dolls, Entertainment, Family, Love, Pop Culture Tagged With: Baby Thumbelina, Charlie McCarthy, Danny O'Day, dollhouses, Dolls, Dr. Ruth, Japanese wig doll, Jill McCorkle, Liddle Kiddles, Nancy Anne Storybook. Wednesday's Child Doll, Thoreau dollhouse

How My French Work Exchange Journey Led to a New Life and Love

February 12, 2020 by Jo Maeder Leave a Comment

Hotel de Cours de Thomazeau in Castillonnes, France. A few years ago I stumbled on the blog Enjoy Living Abroad and began a vicarious journey through Karen McCann and her husband Rich. In 2004, these intrepid Americans decided to live one year in Seville. They’re still there. If you’ve ever dreamed of living abroad or […]

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Filed Under: Author Q&A, Blog, Travel Tagged With: cultural exchange, France, HelpX, travel with a purpose, traveling solo, work exchange

Chapter 1 of Zerk ‘Em and Pull the Push Rods: A Wry Squint at Aviation in the Mid-20th Century

September 10, 2018 by Jo Maeder Leave a Comment

“Something went terribly wrong,” the stranger said. “Katie’s been in the hospital since her operation last month. She wanted me to call you. She’s on a ventilator and can’t speak.” Katie was my father’s widow. After George Weitz died in 1985 at age 75, the British Katie, almost two decades his junior and not prone […]

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Filed Under: Aviation, Blog, Books by Jo, Family Tagged With: Aviation, CAA, FAA, Marines, military

The Tale of the Squirrel-proof Bird Feeder

May 24, 2018 by Jo Maeder 2 Comments

Let me explain why I was so determined to outwit the squirrels stealing birdseed from the wild birds I’d attracted to my yard. Of course they didn’t see it as stealing. It’s their natural right to snarf up anything they can. And boy are they smart. Ultimately though, I won this war. I was having […]

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Filed Under: Birds, Essay Tagged With: Deborah Rivel, Julie Zickefoose, Squirrel-proof bird feeder, The Bluebird Effect, Wildtones

Life Works in Mysterious Ways: How losing my last sibling gave me more than just a new perspective

May 9, 2018 by Jo Maeder 3 Comments

I once wrote an essay for AOL about getting through Mother’s Day when Mom is no longer here (the essay is no longer here as well—so much for everything living forever online). Now I’m faced with Mother’s Day without my brother, Art. Every day without him has been hard, but we always shared memories of “Mama […]

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Filed Under: Books by Jo, Fundraising, Grief, Love, Medical

When A Video of Someone You Know Goes Viral (in a bad way)

March 4, 2018 by Jo Maeder 2 Comments

It was bound to happen. Someone I knew and consider to be a nice person behaved badly, a bystander made a video, it went viral, this person lost their job and now must mentally wear the scarlet letters IPH (Internet Public Hanging). I don’t want to leave a clue to their identity by saying “he” […]

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Filed Under: Entertainment, Pop Culture, Technology Tagged With: Jon Ronson, Shaming, trolling, viral video

How to leave a book review on Amazon (anonymously or not)

November 30, 2017 by Jo Maeder 6 Comments

When a tech-savvy friend confessed that she loved my book yet had no idea how to leave a review on Amazon, I decided to write this for her and anyone else who may not know. Books depend on word-of-mouth and mouse. It’s part of my job description now to ask readers to leave book reviews the way […]

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Filed Under: Blog, Books by Jo, Writing Advice Tagged With: Amazon, book promotion, book reviews, search engines, word of mouse, word of mouth

What is the #1 way to increase happiness?

November 20, 2017 by Jo Maeder 4 Comments

Life is not a bowl of cherries for anyone. We must take the bitter with the sweet, we’re told. But some people seem to have an innate melancholy they can never shake. Studies now show that we stay at the same level of happiness our entire life. There’s only one thing that’s been proven to […]

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Filed Under: Essay, Family, Grief, Love, Medical, Relationships Tagged With: forgiveness, gratitude, happiness, hoarding, Thanksgiving Day

Zerk ’em: Another surprise in a pile of old family papers

November 8, 2017 by Jo Maeder Leave a Comment

In honor of Aviation History Month, Veteran’s Day, and my father’s birthday, I’m sharing a peek at a treasure I unearthed when his widow died. I was asked by her executor if I would like his papers. What papers?, I thought. When he passed she became obsessed with ballroom dancing and turned his office into […]

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Filed Under: Aviation, Blog, Essay, Family, Grief Tagged With: Aviation history 20th century, C.A.A., F.A.A., family history, George Weitz, the inspector

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