Mimi Towle

OCTOBER IS ONE of my favorite months in Marin. The weather is still warm, there is a hint of the holidays in the air and the 49ers have a chance to be great again...

This year, my usual excitement for back-to-school season is tempered by the cascading tragedies we’ve all seen this summer. The last time I sat down to write my editor’s letter, 22 El Pasoans were busy planning for the next school year; the Bettses of Dayton, Ohio, had a son and a daughter just a phone call away; and officer Mario Cerciello Rega had just returned from his honeymoon, focused on keeping the streets of Italy safe....

Putting together another home-related issue brings to mind the joys of creating one’s own personal castle. Reading our feature story, I learned the term “oculus” as it described a peekaboo kitchen window shaped like an eye. This detail was just one stroke of brilliance in designer Fu-Tung Cheng’s work on a hillside Tiburon home. If you’d care to step into our shoes a moment, consider creating an enticing cover headline to evoke that decidedly unique project...

As with many pieces that find their way into our pages, this month’s first-person article by Adrian Jones started with an introductory email from a friend. “You’ve got to hear Adrian’s story,” he wrote. Usually these “amazing” stories have to do with someone starting a business they want readers to know about. In this case, though, no new product was being pitched. Jones just wanted to share a magical account of life-altering chance and coincidence...

“Blink and they’re gone.” “By the time they leave for college, you’ll be ready.” I lost count of how many times people said those words to Pete or to me as we corralled a wayward toddler in a busy mall or lugged either or both like squirrelly logs across the hot sands of Stinson Beach...

This month, this magazine will have arrived in your mailbox beside an abundance of political flyers — each preying on emotions of fear, hope, and loyalty. I wasn’t planning to focus on politics here and Jim Wood is certainly a hard act to follow. For years he has shared his top election picks and poked at legislation he didn’t agree with, which brought us many colorful letters...

As I put my home up for sale this month, the October issue is arriving in yours. Home is where the heart is — it’s the place you feel safe, where you retreat from the outside world. It’s also a personal aesthetic statement. My soon-to-be-ex-husband, Peter, and I have had two homes here in Marin. The first, on Plymouth Avenue in Mill Valley, was idyllic, with many young families raising children together. We joked that it felt like living in a dorm, since the city limited expansion and mandate...

Reading through our second annual “Celebrating Women” issue, I’m beaming with community pride. Last year the issue was a huge success, and the challenge this year was to repeat it. I wasn’t sure if we could pull it off...