My blog

It’s live!  It’s a real thing.  (Or, at least, it’s live in the sense that it’s telling us it will be live July 22nd). How long does it take to read a 336 page book aloud? [...]

… mad. Still just so darn mad about this shooting in California. I want to jump on the bandwagon and start mouthing off about “not one more,” but who am I kidding? There will be [...]

The twittersphere has reacted to the mysoginistic details of the Santa Barbara mass killing with the #YesAllWomen campaign. The name of the hashtag is as a response to the #NotAllMen [...]

I don’t know if this is the first of dozens of posts (it certainly could be), but I see a lot of weird and silly things on my way into New York. Or maybe it’s just this one. This bus [...]

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to visit Friends Select, a a wonderful school in Philly. One of the best parts was the interview with a select number of students. I here I am with my [...]

I was really excited to be approached by an organization named Atlas DIY.  I’ll be visiting them in Brooklyn on June 24th to have a chat with their book club.  Click here for details. [...]

I am tired of seeing parents on TV crying about their gunned-down children. I am tired of hearing people say that we really should do something about guns in this country after every horrific [...]

Besides all the usual Memorial Day weekend activities (a parade, visiting my mom, hanging out with friends), I had an amazing weekend. The reason? I wrote 15,000 words on my work in progress. To [...]

After the craziness that was May I told myself that at least I’d have June and the rest of the summer to relax. Then I looked at my calendar and realized I have a bunch of events coming up. [...]

Throughout my life, I have been a certified book snob.  I think it began when I was 16 and I convinced the conservative English teacher in my little Catholic school to let me, a virginal junior, [...]

My red, white and blue iris patch is officially red, white AND blue as of this morning. The white ones are always stragglers so they come in last.    

I just found out that THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY is a 2014 winner of the National Indie Excellence Book Award. Woot!

I have a weakness for dramatic-looking flowers (being a dramatic flower myself). One of the many reasons it makes me happy when my Old Black Magic iris comes up each year:

My visit to Wood-Ridge High School yesterday was so cool! We had a long chat about the book and life and writing… it was awesome. I met so many great teens I hope I’ll get to see [...]

It is finally iris heaven in sunny New Jersey. So so happy.

Now that audio taping for THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY has just wrapped, I’ve received news that the audio book should be available on July 22nd from Audible.  I’ll post details as I [...]

When I get my hands on the crazy person who thought it would be cool to book me for 5 high-intensity book promotion events in 6 days, as well as throwing in a little session of scrubbing down my [...]

Audible has bought the audio rights to THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY.  The audio recording happened last week.  I was fortunate  to get to exchange emails with the talented Eileen Stevens, who did the [...]

I love how they all seem to work together to make sure there is a bloom of a new color every day.

I did not take naturally to motherhood. It’s not that I didn’t want it or didn’t adore my children. I did. The idea that I made people was instantly mind-blowing. The trouble [...]

Another rainy day in NJ, which makes my gardener’s heart smile. Everything is bright green and beautiful. Some random notes: I am on the lookout for whether I’ll have iris in bloom by [...]

There are just a few chances to catch me locally until I take a break from book promotion for (most) of the summer.  I hope to meet you at a reading or panel.  Here’s what’s coming up [...]

The audio version of THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY begins recording tomorrow!  I’ve had correspondence with the audio “talent” that will do the reading, and she is amazing.  More [...]

I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday for a quick boost. I always find that being among that many books increases my urgency to write. I needed new reading material (and… oops, did I get [...]

The recipe for writing success, I’m learning, is to first ask yourself what you mean by “success.” Here are some thoughts on that:  

There is a lot of talk about the need to represent more diversity in books.  Although it’s been a major focus for years, people of different ethnicities, sexual orientations and physical [...]

Booklist just posted their review of THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY and it’s good!  Written with insight and compassion by reviewer Jeanne Fredriksen, it gives a good overview of the [...]

Yesterday I spoke at a high school with a predominantly Latino student body.  It was the school where New Jersey’s Dream Act was signed by our governor, in an economically disadvantaged [...]