Author Archives: Risa Nye

6/6/86: A birthday today!

7:58 AM  on June 6. Welcome to the world, James! My first words after his birth: “He’d better love me his whole life!” Well, it’s the kind of thing you say after hours and hours of labor… We knew some things about him before he was born (I had the test, knew he was aContinue Reading

A look at books

This is my latest piece on the wonderful site called Retrospect. Here I write about some of my favorite books back in the day. Oh, to climb a tree with a book! Easy Reader

A few more tidbits about brunch cocktails

Once I started writing my latest article for Berkeleyside’s Nosh, I became fascinated with the colorful history of brunch and brunch cocktails. I may have gotten a little carried away, but that’s what editors are for. However, I really wanted to share a couple of things that were left on the virtual cutting room floor.Continue Reading

The Writing Year in Review: 2017

I’m copying (stealing?) this idea from a new author friend, Erika Mailman. In a year where it felt like I didn’t do much writing, it’s good to look back and see what I actually did. It felt like a rather unproductive year, writing-wise, but the evidence shows it wasn’t as unproductive as I thought. ForContinue Reading

The World Works in Mysterious Ways: Birthday Edition

Today, November 14th, is my birthday. I’m moved, overwhelmed, and touched by all the birthday love I’ve received from friends and family. And here are two things that happened to mark this day in 2017: The dream I had night before last, where my sister appeared as a surprise visitor–here to spend my birthday withContinue Reading

Fighting off worry in the midst of beauty

The counties to the north–Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino–are still on fire as I write this. Some people, unable to go back to check, still don’t know for sure if they have homes anymore. All those affected by these raging fires have been on my mind over the past few days. Living in the Bay Area,Continue Reading

Good Morning, Little School Girl

In honor of the first week of school, three little school girls!   First, my Kindergarten picture:             And here’s my daughter on her first day.                     And this one, on her first day of kindergarten (no more current pictures allowedContinue Reading

The House I Live In (That’s America To Me)

It’s the name of a song. I heard Frank Sinatra sing this song twice in two days recently. Because of the disturbing events of the last few days and months, it made me think. What was the story behind this song? And why did it become identified with Sinatra?  I was curious about who wroteContinue Reading

I Was Here

Several years ago, I wrote articles about the craft of writing for Hippocampus Magazine. This is one of them, which came to mind this morning as I was reading a book about writing. I sometimes wonder, as I’m reading, why a writer has chosen to highlight a particular incident in an essay or a memoir.Continue Reading

Card-Carrying Grandmother

First, a little background. My Grandma Eve was my Grampa Mike’s second wife. His first wife, my dad’s beloved mother, passed away before any of us grandchildren got to meet her. So Grandma Eve was the grandmother we knew growing up. If I have the story straight, my grandfather engaged the services of a matchmaker,Continue Reading