Note: It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Judy Alter (July 22, 1938—July 13, 2024). As per her wishes, this website will continue to serve as a digital legacy, celebrating her life’s work and literary contributions. We invite you to explore her books, writings, and the impact she made on the world of literature. Thank you for your continued support and for helping to keep her memory alive.
Oh glorious day! Six years ago, finally getting read to leave rehab and go home. Jordan’s home from Hawaii, the sun was shining all day and the ice melting, and Sophie got a good doctor’s report. All’s right with my world. But we all know all’s not right with the...
Jacob on Twelfth Night too many years ago We celebrated Twelfth Night, the liturgical end of the Christmas season, with our family tradition of each burning a small branch of evergreen and making a secret wish. I spent the morning making a large batch of potato salad...
Home from the hospital As I write tonight, Jamie is sitting on the patio strumming his guitar to soothe Sophie, and it works—she is sound asleep. I would love to have him inside, but who would interrupt a man playing guitar for a sick and miserable dog. And for me,...
Everyone in the Metroplex has a similar story, except maybe for the complication of the dog. My security system began sending off shrill messages at 7:45 this morning, waking me from a sound sleep. Lest you think I’m a slug abed, I was up at 4:30 and 6:30 with Sophie,...
Yesterday online I saw a news photo of a sheriff, standing in front of a jail, announcing new, hardcore school discipline policies in his Floriday district. He was big, burly, overweight, and standing as though braced for a fight. Behind him, standing in what look...
Being a foodie, I enjoyed this memoir From time to time, I think of writing a memoir. I’ve even made sporadic attempts, to the point that I have a fairly good-sized collection of sketches, but they don’t hang together (I’m not sure they have to). The small online...
We are home again after three days and nights in Tomball celebrating with all the Alters, minus one. It was a plentiful, wonderful, be-grateful Thanksgiving. Moments that made my heart glad: a long table for all of us and a guest, plus Lisa’s mom who took Maddie’s...
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about aging—and I’ve been discussing—arguing?—with two people near and dear to me—my wonderful son-in-law and my Canadian daughter. It all began over wine one night when Sue described President Biden as “ancient” and said he’ll be...
Picking seed pods off the hyacinth bean vine. Wish the blooms showed better. Note the newly planted herb garden. Used to be, when I was a kid, that gardening and cooking were womanly chores (except that my dad was a fantastic hobby gardener). In general, though, those...
My first cookbook. Now I'm part of a larger project. I’m writing the foreword to a recipe collection from Story Circle Network. It’s going to be a neat book—each recipe is accompanied by a backstory from the writer who submitted it, and most of the stories are...
Not Rose, but close. Sophie had a dinner guest tonight—and she was only medium graceful about it. Rosie, a yellow lab twice Sophie’s size and just her same age, was graceful and ladylike and not at all interested in Sophie’s food or her treats. I fed Soph early, in...
I’m just going to start this and see where it goes, because there are several things on my mind tonight, none of them earth-shattering but a few that I really want to give voice too. So here goes. My day got off to a rocky start. I got up early (for me) and was...
With Jamie here for two days, followed by Colin for two days, I’ve been thinking about how alike and yet how very different my two sons are. This occurred to me because meal prep for each was so different. For Jamie, I fixed a vegetarian dinner Wednesday—green noodles...
Not long ago I read a novel titled, The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict, about a woman of color, who was “passing” and was the personal librarian to J. P. Morgan. Well, my library may not be as extensive as Morgan’s nor as full of rare editions, but tonight I...
Several years ago, I wrote a young-adult mystery set at Arlington Downs Rracetrack during the Depression. Callie Shaw, a young girl, disguised herself as a boy to get a job as a stableboy, but the aunt with whom she lived cautioned, “The devil will be amongst us if...
Cooking and writing take up much of my day, and I enjoy both, am grateful to be able to fill my days as I do. But lately I’ve thought of some similarities between the two. If you follow my food blog, “Gourmet on a Hot Plate,” you know that I’m an old-fashioned cook,...
Traditional Borscht Our country and the entire world—well, most of it—is reeling in horror at pictures coming out of Bucha, the suburb of Kyiv recently retaken by Ukrainian forces and abandoned by would-be Russian conquerors, who left behind a trail of atrocities—a...
Georgia Arbuckle Fix (and Mattie) did not consider herself attractive “Write what you know” is classic advice to beginning writers. Sometimes it’s true. I probably shouldn’t write about traveling to Antarctica because I’ve never done it, and no amount of research will...
The national flower of Ukraine Cold, wet days have become the norm this winter, and today was yet another one. I so wanted to crawl into my bed and hide there, and I did take a longer nap than usual, just because I was so warm and cozy. I just might slip back into bed...
If I seem obsessed with children’s/young adult literature these days, it’s because there is so much good work coming out for young readers, and as I said the other day, good books are desperately needed in a time when even school boards are limiting readers’ choices....
Picture just because I liked it.Hope it's apt. I went back to the past twice yesterday and today, and I guess what I learned is that it is never the same—good, but not the same. Yesterday, Melinda, who worked with me for over ten years at TCU Press and became a...
The school book wars raging across the country are particularly divisive in Texas. This morning in the Star-Telegram Ryan Rusak, opinions editor, implied the controversy between parents and school boards is a fuss over nothing. I would agree it’s a fuss over nothing,...
Saturdays are supposed to be a mini-vacation from work and responsibilities, but I went to school today. Specifically, I want to a webinar on the importance of first lines taught by Hank Phillippi Ryan and sponsored by the Grand Canyon Writers chapter of Sisters in...
The cover to Irene in Danger, second in my series, “Irene in Chicago Culinary Mysteries.” I’m delighted with the cover. In this one, Irene has been in France for a year, running a small café, but she’s back in Chicago now for Henny and Patrick’s wedding, a small but...
Tonight's light suppercopying my mom's salmon supper Monday’s child may be fair of face, as the nursery rhyme tells us, but she also is hard at work, at least this one was. At least that’s the way it was around my cottage today. The wonderful Zenaida came to clean, do...
