Taking Flight: On WINGS OF WAX, #MFA programs, & Finding Your Voice #MondayBlogs

March Madness is nearly upon us, dear readers. No, I’m not referring to the NCAA basketball tournament, though I will try to find some time to watch a game or two while conducting a publicity tour around the publication of my debut novel, WINGS OF WAX. Work and leisure balance, right? WINGS OF WAX is […]

... Read more

A Greek-American Dream by Guest #Author Steve Karas #MondayBlogs #amreading

Hello readers, This week I welcome friend and fellow Greek-American writer Steve Karas. A Chicago native, Karas is the author of the stellar short story collection Kinda Sorta American Dream. I had the pleasure of blurbing Karas’ book, and what initially stands out is his range as a writer. As he explores the theme of identity in both contemporary and […]

... Read more

May We Get There With You: On #Oakland, #MLK, and #Greek Allies

Chocolate City by the Bay. Often coined with this term, the Oakland, California of my childhood in the 1980’s was–like Detroit, Atlanta, Washington, DC, and other metropolitan centers with a black-majority populace–a city in which African-American culture held prominent influence. Lionel Washington, the city’s first black mayor, served three consecutive terms from 1977 until 1991 […]

... Read more

Inhale, Exhale: On Mindfulness, Ancient Greece, & The Now

  You must plunge beneath your crowded thoughts and calmly contemplate the higher realities with pure, focused attention. If you do this, a state of inspired serenity will remain with you throughout your life, shaping your character and benefiting you in so many ways — Empedocles, ancient Greek sage. Though we generally, and rightfully it […]

... Read more

There’s a Coin in my Cake! On #Greek #NewYears & Luck. #MondayBlogs #Booktrope

Happy New Year! Kalee Chronia! After two weeks of holiday celebration, work begins anew with the first blog post of 2016. In looking forward, into January and the months beyond while preparing for the March release of my novel Wings of Wax, I can’t help but also gaze back to past New Year’s Days. In […]

... Read more

#Art as Life: On Arts Education & Smelly Markers #MondayBlogs

Imagine, if you will, a baby crawling up a mountainous flight of steps, one little knee at a time, slapping the surface of each stair in announcement of his progress. His ascent is inspired not by the promise of toy or treat, but by a desire to view up close the spectrum of colors and […]

... Read more

March Madness: On #MyBigFatGreekWedding2 and New Novel Release Date #MondayBlogs #Booktrope

People Change. Greeks don’t. That’s one of the statements flashing across the screen in oh-so-appropriate blue letters across a white background during the My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 trailer which, at the time of this posting, I’ve watched upwards of a half-dozen times. As brief as the proclamation is during the two-minute preview, it […]

... Read more

A #Greek Bearing Gifts: On #Kindness, #Homeric Epics, and Culture. #MondayBlogs

“Beware of Greeks bearing gifts,” a phrase once commonly heard amid the every day lexicon of collective American vocabulary dates back to a time when just about everyone read and studied the classics. The quote is, of course, a reference to Homer’s Iliad, and the Greek army who hid themselves within a giant wooden horse […]

... Read more

Being Icarus: On #Halloween, Book Releases, & #GreekMyth. #MondayBlogs #Booktrope #writer

I’ve got my wings, the apparatuses fitted to my back with wax, and I’m armed with the wise advice to avoid soaring close to the sun. And still I lose momentum, unable to resist the gravitational pull, my biggest danger not that glowing orb in the sky but the firm ground below it. I can’t […]

... Read more

Crossed Signals: On being #Bilingual, & The Bloopers of a #GreekAmerican Boy in #Greece. #flashfiction #MondayBlogs

The lessons were informal, though they served as instruction nonetheless. Reminiscing now, I realize that in all likelihood they served as fodder for those early childhood outbursts when I deemed my father a “Greek olive,” a delicious insult in my young mind (those of you who read my previous blog exploring the origins of that […]

... Read more