For some writers appearing on a best-seller list is more than could ever be hoped for. For others, earning enough just to keep on writing is quite good enough. And then there is a great and grand group somewhere in between.

There is one author, however, who stands distinctly above the pack. And when the description at the top of her website reads: Outsold only by the Bible and William Shakespeare…, you know she’s got to be pretty good. Pretty good to the tune of an estimated 2-4 billion....

If you’re a baseball fan, there’s no better time of year than now. Following a grueling 162-game season, 10 teams have advanced into the playoffs and now, after the wild card game playoffs earlier this week, eight remain. The sentimental favorite has to be the Chicago Cubs, who have not won a World Series since 1908, but Houston, a team that has never won, and the scrappy Kansas City Royals would also be popular choices.

But the playoffs aside, ponder the following baseball records, among...

As a writer you know that sometimes you don’t find stories; they find you. And sometimes they find you in the most unlikely places.

Take Crosby’s, for instance, the only true grocery store in the town of Concord, Mass. In the age of the all-in-one supermarket, Crosby’s has a throwback feel to it where you can find just about every item you need and not have to worry about getting lost in a cavernous aisle. Quality is good and prices are reasonable. And stories are to be had.

On a...

It’s been a long time since I’ve had the pleasure of sitting around an outdoor fire, gathering in its warmth and sharing stories with good friends. This past week I was fortunate enough to listen to the crackling of burning logs and watch the smoke from those logs drift skyward on consecutive nights.

Fires engage our senses as few things do and often recall to mind scenes and events of our youth that we fondly cling to. One in our group talked about campfire songs, another about melting...

What a glorious time of year. Crisp nights, sunny days, golden leaves and the bugle call of swans signaling their flight to elsewhere. The Royals of Kansas City and Metropolitans of New York are still playing baseball and, yes, I’m still swimming at Walden Pond. Winter beckons, but we’re just not quite ready to let go.

Nor are the various creatures who share are habitat, and who we more often than not take for granted. But it would have been hard not to notice the yellow jackets buzzing...