JCL Publications

In 1997, when I was pregnant with my first daughter Zoe, I decided to quit doing workshops at the Boston Center for Adult Education where I’d been teaching thinks like, “The Art of Making Conversation,” and “The Art of Meeting Someone New” for 10 years.  This made me sad.

So my darling husband decided that my brilliant (to him) ideas shouldn’t go to waste, and he asked me to do a newsletter called “Better Dating.”  

“FORGET IT!” I said.  “First of all, I can’t write, and second of all…I don’t want to.”  So he started taping me in conversations that were like interviews.

And then, he would transcribe the tapes and write a newsletter.

At a certain point, maybe because he was working full time and I wasn’t, and because we had a new baby and he wanted to spend more time with her, I started feeling sorry for him.  So, I told him I’d start writing the newsletter.  

Unfortunately, my husband was an experienced professional editor, and I hadn’t written anything since winning a writing award when I was in fourth grade at nine years old, so he had to teach me how to write.  This was a huge blow to my ego, and I would rant defensively and scream accusations and fuss and we fought like crazy about sentence structure, form, content, and then, about how we didn’t feel loved or cared for or listened to or heard.  Almost twenty-five years ago is a long time!

But happily, we produced a newsletter and I learned how to write.

“Better Dating” is our first baby, and here on the JCL publications page, you will find a few of our issues, and maybe even make your way to “Dad Flashes” my husband’s own brand of creative funniness.  Want to subscribe to more issues?  Just go over to the shop and become a part of the process! Enjoy.

-Claudia and John Luiz