Betty Hale Sigmon: 1927-2014. We had mom to thank for her lovely memorial service last Friday—she planned it herself and left detailed notes. She asked for a vase of mauve roses on the piano, then warned: “Be sure to put a coaster or cloth under the vase to protect the wood.” Pure Mom. As […]

Lupus patients: Antiphospholipid antibodies pose added health risks unrelated to blood clots.

Wishing you the simple pleasures of holidays past — sparkling stars above, a crackling fire, and loved ones close by.
My take on one Christmas shopping experience, “Sky Shopping,” appears this month on the Southern Sampler Artists Colony e-zine at:

http://bit.ly/1eCIr3g

Alliance Francaise and the Wanderland Writers will ring in the holidays in style this Thursday, December 12, with a holiday party—music, cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, door prizes, and readings from the travel anthology Wandering in Paris: Luminaries and Love in the City of Light. 6-8 pm at Alliance Francaise, 1345 Bush Street (between Polk and Larkin) in San Francisco. It’s free and open to the Public. Hope to see you there!

On November 22 we’ll celebrate the new Paris travel anthology, Wandering in Paris: Luminaries and Love in the City of Light. If you’re in the Bay area, please join us at 7 pm at A Great Good Place for Books, 6120 LaSalle Ave. in Oakland’s Montclair Village. It’s free and open to the Public.

Autoimmune illness comes to the forefront as author Meghan O’Rourke describes her harrowing experience in The New Yorker. “The worst part of my fatigue, the one I couldn’t explain to anyone—I knew I’d seem crazy—was the loss of an intact sense of self,” she writes.

If you’re in the Bay Area, come join us as the Wanderland Writers debut the new anthology Wandering in Paris: Luminaries and Love in the City of Light. We’ll celebrate the book’s publication at two festive launch parties sponsored by Left Coast Writers: — Monday, August 12, 6 pm at Book Passage at the San […]

Aphasia—difficulty speaking and remembering words or names—is one of the most vexing aftereffects of stroke and other types of brain damage. Aphasia can also affect the ability to listen, read, spell, and work with numbers. After my stroke, I couldn’t remember my husband’s name or how to call 911. Every sentence was a struggle: to […]

Hear some great travel stories this Saturday night and perhaps win a prize for a piece of your own. Left Coast Writers presents Our Favorite Travel Writers this Saturday, June 8, at 7 pm in the gallery at Book Passage Corte Madera store. We’ll share stories and wine and the company of fellow traveling writers. There […]

A research team at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), has identified a genetic mutation that is strongly associated with a typical form of migraine headache—migraine with aura.  The research “puts us one step closer to understanding the molecular pathway to pain in migraine,” according to Louis J. Ptáček, senior investigator on the study […]