This “coming of age” tale — starring an English sports car and a dysfunctional New Jersey family — was first told in Rita Mattia’s book, “Trying Stuff.”

Mattia recalls the jobs she juggled, the money she earned, and the lessons she learned — mostly outside the classroom.

Rita Mattia discovers to her delight that a career in advertising in Richmond , Virginia is a much better fit for her than a quest for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. 

Mental health issues, a run of bad luck and some complicated dental work somehow become, well, funny to Rita Mattia.

Rita Mattia answers the call of Jury Duty in Richmond, Virginia. Her own trials do not end in the courtroom. 

This title is sort of borrowed from Toni Morrison. This story, about the healing properties of volunteerism, first appeared in Rita Mattia’s book “Trying Stuff.”

An adventure in Rita Mattia’s long advertising career, involving the deep south and a lot of much deeper stuff. With stops in Asheville, North Carolina and Greenville, South Carolina. 

Members of the Mattia family sidestep the Mafia; a pair of twelve-year-olds show extraordinary boldness; and a dramatic confession shakes things up in mid twentieth century northern New Jersey.

Rita Mattia muses about her triumphs and failures as a writer in Lyndhurst, New Jersey; Saratoga Springs, New York; and Richmond, Amherst and Alexandria, Virginia — and adds a comment on 2020.

Phobias, dark spaces, and bizarre discoveries in several of Rita Mattia’s historic homes in Richmond, Virginia are visited in this tale from the 1990s.