If you’re celebrating Christmas next week, I hope you have a lovely, joy-filled holiday. If you don’t celebrate or if this is a difficult time for you, I wish you peace and happiness this December.

And I have a little gift for you — I’ve just published this Christmas-themed short story:

The Lost Diamond (A Short Story)

“Laura did not notice the diamond was missing until the subway reached 42nd street. She had been playing with the engagement ring, twirling it back and forth around her finger, while she tried not to stare at the other passengers. When the subway stopped at the station platform, she jumped to her feet and bent down to collect her two shopping bags. It was then that she saw the ring’s empty prongs...”

I wrote this story several years ago so it depicts a New York City that will probably be a little different from 2020. I hope you enjoy the story! 🙂 Merry Christmas!

September 22 marked the beginning of autumn, and it reminded me of this wonderful quote from The Great Gatsby,

Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.

As the quote repeated itself in my brain, I wondered what part of the book it came from. There are so many quotes like this one that people lift from books and share across Instagram and other social media sites, devoid of their original context.

So I went in search of the quote and found it on page 107 of my edition of The Great Gatsby. It’s a line of dialogue that the character Jordan says in reply to Gatsby’s love interest, Daisy:

‘What’ll we do with ourselves this afternoon,’ cried Daisy, ‘and the day after that, and the next thirty years?’

‘Don’t be morbid,’ Jordan said. ‘Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.’

The writer in me sprang to attention and said, “What masterfully written dialogue!”

Perhaps I could glean several tips from Fitzgerald that would help me to write masterful dialogue as well.

So I continued reading a little more of the scene and came away with these three takeaways.