by AnnSheybani | Apr 5, 2020 | Life
A young Frenchman wants to switch places with me so he can sit next to one of the five cohorts who accompanied him on our transatlantic flight. He’s asked me several times if I’ll move, and he won’t take no for an answer. “This is my wife,” he says in broken English...
by AnnSheybani | Mar 31, 2020 | Life
“I’d like two six-minute hard-boiled eggs,” I said, enunciating each word carefully. The young man who had assisted me with the very same order the day before nodded, then darted off to the hotel kitchen. Weaving in and out of the crowded breakfast area, I took my... by AnnSheybani | Mar 21, 2020 | Life
Right now, a lot of my clients and colleagues are confused about the current business environment. Times are hard, what with the quarantine situation, what with lots of people losing their jobs, so should they be trying to sell things right now? Shouldn’t they...
by AnnSheybani | Mar 16, 2020 | Life, Writing
I got to thinking about this bike rack I refused to buy because it looked like way too much bother. Anything that requires me to read a user’s manual, well, I I just don’t need it badly enough. Yet, if I hadn’t been nagged to death to buy the damn...
by AnnSheybani | Mar 9, 2020 | Reading, Writing
Lately, I’ve had my head in manuscripts just rife with purple prose. Purple prose, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, is writing that’s so extravagant, ornate, or flowery, it breaks the flow and draws excessive attention to itself. Purple prose is...
