Category Archives: Personal

The Coronation Cometh…

Posted on May 5, 2023 by Gabriella West

I managed to download the emblem of Charles III’s coronation, which turns out to have been designed by Jony Ive, once head of design at Apple and now Sir Jony Ive 🙂 The emblem itself is very pretty. CNN may … Continue reading →

Posted in News, Personal | Tagged cnn, Coronation, funerals, Jony Ive, King Charles III, mothers, royalty | Leave a comment

After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: A Review of ‘Too Early to Know Who’s Winning’ by Karla Huebner

Posted on March 31, 2023 by Gabriella West

Karla Huebner’s latest book seems as if it’s the story of a friendship between two women during the harrowing Trump years. Superficially, it is, but it soon becomes clear that it’s a thinly veiled autobiographical novel about the anxieties of … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal, Reviews | Tagged aging, autobiographical fiction, feminist fiction, friendships, Health, Karla Huebner, loss, middle age, Midwest, review, stress, Too Early to Know Who's Winning, Trump Years | Leave a comment

Coming Full Circle

Posted on February 4, 2023 by Gabriella West

As promised, I’m posting a personal essay written in 2021 during lockdown, shortly after I got the vaccine, which seemed so, so significant at the time. I realize that it is about time, hope, and gratitude. [Image is of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Health, LGBT, Personal, San Francisco | Tagged cancer, deaths, essay, graduate students, in transit, lockdown, pandemic, San Francisco, San Francisco State, Time, USF, vaccine, writing group | Leave a comment

December Thoughts

Posted on December 8, 2022 by Gabriella West

The last month of 2022 is somehow upon us! The weather is so cold and dreary, I can’t get warm. However, I found a winter image I had never seen before, a Marc Chagall painting of a church in the … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, News, Personal, Self-publishing | Tagged 2023, Bookbub, creativity, promotion, Smashwords, snow, The Knight's Return, winter, year of the rabbit | 2 Comments

Just a Quick Note

Posted on September 22, 2022 by Gabriella West

To say Happy Fall! The birds were out on the backyard tree this morning as if they knew the season has changed, which they do, of course! Warblers, finches, a junco, and a hummingbird. I will be back soon to … Continue reading →

Posted in Health, Personal | Tagged birds, fall, Health, seasons | Leave a comment

Fall Bargains and Musings

Posted on October 10, 2021 by Gabriella West

I wanted to let folks know that a couple of my books are on sale now at Smashwords. You can get Once You Are Mine for 25% off; The Pull of Yesterday, book 2 in the Elsie Street trilogy is … Continue reading →

Posted in Health, LGBT, News, Personal, Self-publishing, Writing | Tagged Bookbub, cancer, Colin Powell, Covid, death, Elsie Street, Free, hearts, mortality, once you are mine, Radish, Smashwords, The Pull of Yesterday | Leave a comment

A Tenuous Time (Two Unexpected Losses)

Posted on July 25, 2021 by Gabriella West

Seems like a weird time we’re in right now. The delta variant is upon us, and even in San Francisco, cases are rising robustly. I continue to wear my mask and am relieved that so many of my fellow SFers … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal, San Francisco, Writing | Tagged Autism, cancer, Chico, deaths, delta variant, Denise Minor, Facebook, feminist, friendship, loss, obituary, Patrick More, San Francisco State, women's lives, writing group | Leave a comment

Happy Pride 2021

Posted on June 5, 2021 by Gabriella West

Pride comes but once a year! This month we are emerging from a pandemic. It feels like we ought to be joyous and yet there is more anxiety in the air than joyousness, for the most part. (Although on June … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, LGBT, Personal | Tagged ADHD, Apple, audiobook, Barnes & Noble, connecting the dots, Covid, Daniela Acitelli, Gay Pride Month, Google play, June, passings, Pride, Smashwords, time of grace, women's lives | Leave a comment

A Final Word on Blake Bailey

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Gabriella West

You can’t keep a bad man down. That’s what sprang to mind when I read on Twitter yesterday that Blake Bailey’s infamous biography of Philip Roth, unpublished by Norton, had been picked up by Skyhorse Publishing and will be rushed … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, News, Personal, Writing | Tagged academics, alcoholism, biography, bisexuality, Blake Bailey, decline and fall, double lives, Eve Crawford Peyton, fathers, Lusher, Philip Roth, publishing, Rape, Scandal, Skyhorse Publishing, sons, The Splendid Things We Planned, Valentina Rice, W.W. Norton | Leave a comment

It’s Spring!

Posted on May 2, 2021 by Gabriella West

And that’s always exciting. This was what my kitchen looked like last month, with the fruit trees outside in the terraced back yard pressing in at the window. Things are greener now. The cedar waxwings are taking their last bites … Continue reading →