My creative life
From early childhood, when I insisted on joining the Catholic School Boys' Playground, I've been a feminist. (The nuns were not happy.) Using my pen, I've written both scholarly and trade books, and articles concerning inequalities of power, gender, race, and class. I first explored these themes while a social researcher at Johns Hopkins University. See my Scholarly page for some of that work.
At Sonoma State University, when my students demanded more material on women's history, I shifted my research to biographies. I was fascinated by the lives of women connected to noted men. Living near Jack London State Historic Park, I discovered London's second wife Charmian Kittredge. Then I examined several generations of women in two prominent families: Vanderbilt and Rockefeller. Returning to Jack London, I explored all the women connected to him: mother, stepsister, wives, friends. No surprise, I co-edit london.sonoma.edu, based at Sonoma State University, called Jack London Online, with Roy Tennant, noted digital librarian.
My latest essay is "Aesthetics, Androgyny, and Identity: Charmian Kittredge London’s Artful Life," for Women's Studies. Find a copy of this and my other London scholarship on my London Articles page.
My first fiction book is Slanderley: Love and Death in Cornwall. I wrote this spoof in my twenties but expanded and published it recently. It is solely to entertain. http://tiny.cc/li4vdy or https://Amazon.com/Author/cmstasz
I've been tracking my Czech/Hungarian ancestry for many years in an attempt to understand my extended family better. Of late, I have found ancestors in 19th and 18th century censuses, including the requirements of serfdom for the Hungarian laws in the 1700s. More on this on the Gypsy page. Most surprising, similar to Madelyn Albright, I recently discovered one great-grandmother was Jewish and passed down the BRCA gene through my extended family.
Other volunteer activities include managing the websites for The Sitting Room: A Community Library and Renaissance Singers Retreat.
When not writing, I am playing Ubass, percussion, or sing with groups. Under COVID, I have returned to the piano. It took a while to get my skills back, but one day, Voila, muscle memory popped in.
At Sonoma State University, when my students demanded more material on women's history, I shifted my research to biographies. I was fascinated by the lives of women connected to noted men. Living near Jack London State Historic Park, I discovered London's second wife Charmian Kittredge. Then I examined several generations of women in two prominent families: Vanderbilt and Rockefeller. Returning to Jack London, I explored all the women connected to him: mother, stepsister, wives, friends. No surprise, I co-edit london.sonoma.edu, based at Sonoma State University, called Jack London Online, with Roy Tennant, noted digital librarian.
My latest essay is "Aesthetics, Androgyny, and Identity: Charmian Kittredge London’s Artful Life," for Women's Studies. Find a copy of this and my other London scholarship on my London Articles page.
My first fiction book is Slanderley: Love and Death in Cornwall. I wrote this spoof in my twenties but expanded and published it recently. It is solely to entertain. http://tiny.cc/li4vdy or https://Amazon.com/Author/cmstasz
I've been tracking my Czech/Hungarian ancestry for many years in an attempt to understand my extended family better. Of late, I have found ancestors in 19th and 18th century censuses, including the requirements of serfdom for the Hungarian laws in the 1700s. More on this on the Gypsy page. Most surprising, similar to Madelyn Albright, I recently discovered one great-grandmother was Jewish and passed down the BRCA gene through my extended family.
Other volunteer activities include managing the websites for The Sitting Room: A Community Library and Renaissance Singers Retreat.
When not writing, I am playing Ubass, percussion, or sing with groups. Under COVID, I have returned to the piano. It took a while to get my skills back, but one day, Voila, muscle memory popped in.
E-mail is the best way to contact me.
