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Tuesday 10, October, 2023
A story of women and war: Ava and The American Rhode Island International Film Festival: 2023 Screenplay Competition Finalist (winner announced Nov 2023) It’s the end of World War II. Ava’s a young, German actress detained with Nazi secretaries, housewives, and sadistic concentration camp guards as the Allies prepare cases for the Nuremberg trials. The women pass the time in captivity playing cards and spinning gossip. Many don’t believe the war is really over. Ava falls in love with the Black-American Captain in charge of questioning them, and when she overhears a plot to kill him, she sets out...
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Wednesday 15, December, 2021
It was wonderful meeting with students at Carrie Palmer Weber Middle School in November after they read Edna in the Desert, and extra special as my first school visit since the start of the global pandemic! We just made it between the waves of Delta and Omicron. Mrs. Portmore-Davies and her English classes had insightful questions about the book and the Mojave Desert where the story takes place. I was surprised by so much curiosity about what Edna’s next moves might be! After talking, we had a writing workshop. The students came up with ideas for their own stories and, in...
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Tuesday 10, September, 2019
EDNA IN THE DESERT is on Get Schooled’s short list of Coming of Age titles…with Great Expectations and Lord of the Flies ! “In honor of your coming-of-age, here are some great books with characters who are going through some growing pains themselves. Maybe you’ll see yourself in them.” See the list here: https://getschooled.com/dashboard/article/2287-books-that-prove-growing-up-isn-t-easy ...
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Thursday 16, September, 2010
By Stephen Visakay (with Maddy Lederman), Special to the Los Angeles Times, September 16, 2010. Photo: Ann Cusack/Los Angeles Times There’s more history to these cocktail-stirring devices than Don Draper could imagine. They’re collectibles as well as connections to the past. “Mad Men,” the Emmy-winning cultural phenomenon, has sparked renewed interest in yet another quirky artifact from its era. In addition to slim suits, lunchtime cocktails and cigarettes, the 1960s mark the glory days in the history of the swizzle stick — and Don Draper’s Old-Fashioned would’ve been considered unfinished, even uncivilized, without one. Today, these mini-pop-culture icons are emerging as entertaining and valued...
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Saturday 12, April, 2008
By Maddy Lederman Published by The Sun Runner Magazine, April/May 2008 With a history of so much scandal surrounding energy and the ongoing battle against the alleged profiteers proposing the ironically named “Green Path,” it’s easy to be suspicious of anything in the local energy industry. At the same time, the benefits of an energy source that does not emit CO2 are numerous and obvious. Wind power is a fast growing industry, and we are likely to see more of it. In general, wind power gets pretty good press. If green energy is mentioned in an ad, you can expect...
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Friday 12, October, 2007
By Maddy Lederman Published by The Sun Runner, Desert Music Edition, Oct/Nov 2007. Rick Chambers has been living in Wonder Valley for over 30 years. “I was a lineman for Edison and then I went to work for San Diego Gas and Electric. I just helped the city fill in and, you know, I got claustrophobic. I had to get out. I always loved the desert. I woke up one morning in Oceanside, put an ad in the newspaper that day at noon and the next day at noon everything I had in Oceanside was sold and I was gone. That...
