My blog

I have found the cure for my acute aversion to housework: Downton Abbey. And my magical little Kindle. Oh, and it seems that 12 days off don’t hurt either. I thought I’d gone mad when [...]

As with any good project with sloth as its central theme, I have only gotten around to documenting my Twelve Days of Christmas today, on its third day.  With carefully put-together personal days [...]

Yesterday, in a climate-change-produced Christmas miracle, it was 71 degrees in New Jersey.  I went for a hike in short sleeves with my son and my dogs at a time of year normally more suited for [...]

There had been candlesticks and whispering in this room, full wine glasses and music. Dancing shadows on the wall, one of them tall, one of them beautiful. There had been love in this room. Now [...]

I have never been a Christmas card-sender. But I’ve gotten so many lovely cards and “year in review” letters throughout the years and this year in particular that I figured [...]

YALSA  is the Young Adult Library Services Association, a big deal in the young adult book world. So that’s why I was thrilled to see my name on their “Authors by State” wiki. [...]

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 [...]

Have you ever noticed that we never quite realize the things that are going to change us or our lives in the moment they first come into our lives? We think we can control things, make things [...]

Technology makes possible unprecedented connections between readers and writers.  Whereas before students could only connect with authors that traveled to their part of the world, today, with [...]

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 [...]