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One of the (many) wonderful things about writing and publishing a book is that it introduces you to an amazing bunch of people.  Publishing folk – be they agents, editors or writers – [...]

Yesterday I forgot my phone and hopped on a bus to New York City. Somewhere right before exit 17 for the Lincoln Tunnel, I realized it. It took three passengers to restrain me from jumping out of [...]

This morning, a friend posted her personality test results on Facebook.  For kicks, I figured I’d take the test too.  My results?  I am what’s called a Dreamy Idealist.  When I read [...]

Yesterday we got the most angelic, beautiful snowfall, perfect puffs of white floating in mid-air outside my window.  I worked from my living room and enjoyed them, a warm cup of tea nearby. [...]

I have no interest in reading books on anything but paper.  Don’t get me wrong: I’m not anti-Nook or Kindle.  I don’t bemoan the proliferation of electronic devices.  I see [...]

Many registered participants had technical difficulties logging in to the Qlovi Google Hangout reading of The Secret Side of Empty (including this registered participant!).  Apologies for any [...]

I love weather.  Climate with personality.  I would quickly get miserable somewhere like southern California, with its perpetually cheery warmth.  Just like I love people who challenge me and [...]

[su_dropcap style=”light” size=”4″]L[/su_dropcap]ast night I got home to find a heavy and unexpected package at my door. I opened it up… books!!! MY books! I knew we [...]

I was a reluctant viewer of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, because I like drama but I don’t like to be preached at, even when the preaching comes from people with my same positions.  I [...]

About 6 weeks ago, I finally crossed off a “bucket list” item and ordered an anthropological study of my DNA (I know – go wild, Maria.  What a bucket list).  Guess what?  Turns [...]

I am not a forgiver.  I am not one to let things go.  I am a chronicler of wrongs, a rememberer.  It is a habit I learned in childhood.  I can still tell you the name of a girl who thoughtlessly [...]

I remember the momentous day when Nelson Mandela was released from prison after a 27-year-incarceration. It was February, 1990. I was nineteen years old and I watched it live while snuggling with [...]

In a little over a week, classrooms around the country will be tuning in to hear moi read an excerpt of The Secret Side of Empty live via Google Hangout hosted by Qlovi, a leading provider of [...]

There was something about Black Friday bleeding into Thanksgiving that made me very sad, like something irrevocable was being lost.  It wasn’t just the rapacious greed of corporations [...]

We are finally down to double digits in the countdown to the release of The Secret Side of Empty.  Lots of cool things are in the works, like a detailed Discussion Guide, a nationwide Google [...]

It is the day after Thanksgiving 2013.  This will always be the year I discovered heritage turkeys.  Was it worth it?  It sure was.  Here’s my experience with this up-and-coming star of [...]

Writing a failed love story makes me reflect on what happens when the person is gone but the feelings remain.  (Writing book # 2, where this is a plot point).  It made me research quotes on [...]

I remember when I was a kid in Catholic school there was a lot of hand-wringing about the fact we’d lost sight about the reason for the Christmas season.  I hated that.  Of course Christmas [...]

It has been a long labor of love and I’ve had to sit on my hands many times when I’ve wanted to post it, but I’ve finally gotten the go-ahead to shout it from the rooftops: the [...]

New York is a city of exclusions.  People who pay thousands of dollars to live in a shoebox (in midtown!) look down on those of us who pay the same about for a four-bedroom house nine miles away. [...]

They wonder, sometimes, why those of us who live in the Northeast cling with terror to our shorelines when we read about the crap that happens in the middle of the country.  Yes, I know [...]

The internets are aflutter with the video of the cop who shot at a minivan full of kids.  If you haven’t seen the video, click here to see excerpts. What happened was this:  a cop pulled [...]

There are few things I find as repulsive as Black Friday, both in concept and in practice.  First, the idea that the peaceful, family-filled day after a celebration of thanks should involve [...]

Butterball, one of the US’s main producers of Thanksgiving turkeys, has announced a 50% drop in turkeys 16 pounds and up. Thank goodness I ordered that heritage turkey. Now, I’m a [...]

As a life-long princess-fantasy-lover, I love this advertising campaign (and by a Catholic school, no less). It tells young women things like, “You are not a princess.” “Life is [...]

I am a hardcore pacifist.  I believe in peace.  I believe that all human conflict can be resolved non-violently and that in the future there will be no more war.  I just have to believe that [...]

Pull out your calendars because the book signings are beginning!  My very first signing – ever – will happen on Saturday, January 25th, 2014 at the American Library Assocation’s [...]

I am now lining up school visits to talk about the issues touched upon in The Secret Side of Empty:  “illegal” (undocumented) immigration, alienation and the feelings of hopelessness [...]

I was on a bus from Johannesburg to Cape Town, South Africa a few years ago.  It was its own brand of hell, stuck in a cramped seat for 19 hours with a colorful cast of characters.  (And if you [...]

If you’d have asked me twenty years ago if I’d write a quasi-favorable review of Mike Tyson saying anything, ever, the answer would have been no.  I knew the narrative everyone agreed [...]