I’m one of the writers/editors for The Purple Passport to Los Angeles, an eBook guide to my home port of LA. It’s organized by neighborhood to help readers get oriented in the LA sprawl and includes hip, handpicked venues from the Westside to the Eastside. Whether your LA pleasure is celebrity sighting, beachcombing, dance clubbing, art spotting, nature trolling, movie going, or fine dining, the guide has you covered. Helpful maps and must-knows about transportation, seasonal highlights, and local culture are also included. It’s available for download through the Amazon Kindle Store for Kindle readers and Kindle apps for Android/iPhone, so you can slip it in your bag as you take a “Red Carpet Ride”!

I’m among the restaurant reviewers who contributed to Clean Plates Los Angeles: A Guide To the Healthiest, Tastiest, and Most Sustainable Restaurants for Vegetarians and Carnivores. The guide gives you the lowdown on how and where to eat healthfully and eco-consciously in Los Angeles without sacrificing flavor or gourmet craftsmanship. It hops from casual lunch places like the Coral Tree Café to special-occasion experiences like Josie. Researching and writing the reviews was a deliciously fulfilling experience! Available for purchase on Amazon and at select local stores, the guide is the perfect size to slip into your glove compartment. Trust me, at all the restaurants included, you’ll want to clean your plate.

I’m one of the writers/editors for The Purple Passport to Palm Beach, an eBook guide to this sunny South Florida playground. The guide points you to all the choicest hotels, spas, restaurants, shops, nightlife spots, and activities for a distinctive Palm Beach experience that epitomizes “The High Life at Sea Level.” Helpful maps and must-knows about transportation, seasonal highlights, and local culture are also included. It’s available for download through the Amazon Kindle Store for Kindle readers and Kindle apps for Android/iPhone, so you can have the guide at your fingertips while sunning yourself poolside or hitting the links!

Currently, I’m researching the life of a distant cousin, Shirley Greenblatt Patterson, who—fearing disapproval and disownment by her Jewish family—kept her marriage to Collins Patterson, an African-American, secret for twenty years (pictured). They married in 1952, just after the anti-miscegenation laws were repealed in California, and faced discrimination in San Francisco, where they lived and loved. Despite all the hardship, on the headstone of their joint grave, it reads, “We Had It All.” I plan to tell their story, thanks in part to the help of a Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Research Award.

It may seem odd that a white girl from Orange County grew up to be a hip hop head, but I’ve been hooked on the stuff since Run-D.M.C. stormed the suburbs and knocked me off my tuchus in 5th grade. My master’s thesis for my MFA in creative nonfiction from USC was my “hip hop memoir,” the story of my dance adventures and love affair with the music and culture. I’m in the process of polishing it for publication!