Diminishing returns — If you’re a writer under 30, I suspect you’ll find this surprising: Freelance writing used to be lucrative. Twenty years ago, after leaving full-time reporting, I made a decent living writing stories for my old newspaper and other publications. I got paid roughly a buck to two bucks a word…

A death in the Caucasus — You hit your fifties and people start dying. Parents, parents of friends, friends. Just last week, a friend committed suicide. He’d been seen walking his dog a few hours earlier. I can’t stop thinking about him. He was in his forties, had a wife and two kids, a good job…

Platinum Jubilee — On March 6, 2018 in a town hall in Morden, England, I stood beside my husband and daughter and swore by Almighty God that I would be “faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Her Heirs and Successors according to law.” …

You Can’t Go Back — I’m at a reporter hangout waiting for a friend. It feels like years since I’ve been in a place like this. I’m so happy. If I weren’t here, I’d be home cooking or cleaning or sitting cross-legged on a floor stacking rainbow rings. The bar is dark and candlelit. Around…

Bug Lives Matter — My daughter has begged me not to write this story. She says I’ll embarrass myself and readers will think I’m nuts. But I must do this — if only for the bugs. If a big fat fly is buzzing around my home, I don’t grab my tennis racket, whack it…

Midlife Motherhood — Having a baby post 40 is challenging enough without people thinking you’re a grandma. I’m at a deli counter in a grocery store when the woman slicing my roast beef asks: “Is that your baby? Or yours for the day?” “I know,” I say, “she looks nothing like me.” To…

Life Choices — My first feeling upon hearing my friend was spending the weekend at the house of Downton Abbey’s creator was pique, then jealousy, then, well, curiosity. How is it that my dear friend, an ex-reporting rival of a similar class, would be shooting clay pigeons and drinking champagne (a guess from…

My private quiz — Some of us are writers; some of us are content creators. There’s no shame in either. The thing is, it’s increasingly difficult to tell us apart. The first time I heard the word “content” was at The Wall Street Journal in the late ‘90s. With the Internet, newspapers were dated…