Full of summer

My kids went to the town pool for the first time last weekend… a sure sign of summer. This weekend, I raided the local nursery like mad, crowding my steps with plants that need to find [...]

Merchandising

My children should be fruit inspectors, because the instant any produce shows the slightest blemish, they refuse to eat it.  It may have just come in through the door, but if they perceive it as [...]

Loving life

Squeezing out one last post before I get on a plane later this morning. Yesterday I was delighted to read the news that the legislature of Nebraska passed a law banning the death penalty, [...]

Cut them off

It’s always interesting to me when I have a connection (even if tenuous) to something that’s going on in the news. This week, I’m traveling to Ohio to a homeschooling convention [...]

A favorite quote

Sometimes old lines from my favorite movies start running through my head and won’t stop (you can imagine how much fun it is to be me).  This is from Legends of the Fall, one of the movies [...]

Happy Tuesday!

Hello, darlings. Apologies for so completely neglecting you these last few days. I had a jam-packed weekend without a moment to breathe (or write). I hope yours was as fun as mine was!  Mine was [...]

Signed first edition

Here’s something kind of hilarious I found by accident.  There’s someone on Ebay selling “a signed first edition” of THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY, complete with a picture of [...]

My new name

I love my daughter madly, but as she firmly settles into her adolescence, she has begun to ask for things.  A lot of things.  Not only stuff but a variety of things, most of which need to be [...]

Is reading dead?

One of my bookish friends posted this graphic on Facebook yesterday.  It points to something we all know: most people aren’t reading books.  For my book-loving crowd, this is cause for [...]

Pre-order your paperback

The release of the paperback version of THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY has been pushed up to July 28th.  The cover hit the streets yesterday (and I’m totally in love).  I can’t wait to hold [...]

Paperback cover reveal

Today I am so excited that the cover for the paperback edition of THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY is being released out in the world at the wonderful YA Books Central.  They’ve got a little [...]

More iris garden

It’s iris season!  I want to post a gazillion pictures but I’ll spare you and post just a few (below).  They’re so pretty and they’re popping up everywhere! I am adding a [...]

Revere tall bearded iris

Iris season is in full swing and I couldn’t be happier.  Every morning I can’t wait to rush outside to see what new variety is blooming.  This morning I was particularly delighted to [...]

Interview in the Latin Post

This week I spoke to a journalist with the Latin Post who asked me some questions about writing, immigration and what I hope readers get out of THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY. Check out the interview: [...]

Keep it classy, Daily News

I love it when I get a chance to just guffaw out loud.  This morning, I got that chance at CVS. Here’s the Daily News cover about Deflate-gate.  I don’t understand a thing about it [...]

Kurt Cobain made me old

It occurred to me while watching the new HBO documentary, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck: I am old.  Not only am I old, but I’m okay with it. I have always been on the side of the young, [...]

I got it!!!

All I wanted for Mother’s Day was an iris bloom… and I got one!!! My lovely Aggressively Forward decided to give me my wish and grace me with one single, gorgeous bloom.  It was a [...]

Save the date… my birthday!

It’s true, I am a terrible attention hog on my birthday.  I start spreading the word around March that the most important day of the year is on its way: June 14th, Flag Day, otherwise known [...]

Peek behind the curtain

Do you ever wonder what goes into naming a book?  I’m always surprised by how many readers don’t realize that authors don’t always get to name their books… or that, at the [...]

Silence

Alone, I love silence. When I’m with loved ones, I don’t do well with it at all. I am a person who yearns for connection. I don’t do small talk. I do deep, interested, [...]

Almost…

I have been on a years-long quest to get one of my iris plants to bloom by Mother’s Day.  Thus far, I have been thwarted.  But this year it’s looking SO GOOD.  So close.  This is my [...]

Tenderness

Being at a birth this week has thrown me out of the ordinary rhythm of my life in the best possible way.  Nowhere am I feeling it more than when looking at my own children. Parenting teenagers is [...]

In the meantime

I just had to take a picture of this most gorgeous of tulips that has somehow, improbably, has survived in my front yard without being chewed up as a snack by a hoofed menace.  Is it not [...]

Someone special

Someone very special just came into my life and I am over the moon about it. Her name is Hazel and she’s 7 pounds 3 ounces.  I performed her mom and dad’s wedding ceremony a year and [...]