My blog

There’s no sugar coating it: I am, by nature, an anxious person. My anxiety is slow and simmering. I don’t have “big events,” like panic attacks. I just walk through life [...]

Yesterday, I posted what can only be described as a gibberish post.  I was exhausted, it was a crazy day and it had been weighing on me that I hadn’t gotten to the blog. So, when I finally [...]

It was great to come across this article on Bustle about the Restless Books Prize.  Submissions are open this coming September through December for previously unpublished first-generation [...]

  The other day I posted a link to a list of places I want to visit once the kids go off to college.  It was a slideshow of beaches and natural pools in caverns.  (There’s something so [...]

If you’re ever in my neck of the woods and want to say hello, you can catch me going for my morning walk in a new(-ish) section of a county park that was built right in my town.  It has a [...]

Dear Home Depot: The fact that you know I just cleaned out my garage and now incessantly show me ads for garage organization stuff is starting to creep me out.  Also, too late. P.S. – my [...]

The best sellers list has been updated. And guess what!  I’m still not on it! Yet, peeps, yet.  Hope springs eternal. The Gray Lady has revamped the way it reports on what books are the [...]

We writers are a pretty nerdy bunch.  (We wear it as a badge of honor).  So if you’re not a writer, you may want to look away now. If you’re still here, let me tell you that this [...]

It began somewhere south of Big Sur.  My precious iPhone, which I cradle like a premature infant and which, in gratitude, rewards me with non-stop information, entertainment and love, stopped [...]

I am going to every one of these magical places.  #travelgoals Click here.

Okay, here it is, my big announcement: I’m considering becoming a man.  It’s a man’s world.  Maybe it’s time I just go with it. I mean in a literary capacity, of course. [...]

A lot has been written about “facing the blank page,” that moment so many writers dread.  But less has been written about facing the already-written page, a process that, for me, is [...]

You might say I was fated to be a writer – either that, or a con-artist or a spy or some other kind of criminal – because I was endowed at birth with a double identity. – [...]

As a writer of books for teens (so far, anyway), I used to worry about what I posted here on my blog.  After all, many of my posts are not teen-friendly.  Some are risque (although I’d [...]

The other day I was Googling the current Jewish population of various countries (it’s for a book).  I scanned the list. Curious even after I had the information I needed, I continued down [...]

It’s a month and a half out and the schedule for the Texas Teen Author Festival has been posted.  And guess what:  I’m on a panel with Sonia Manzano (that’s Maria from Sesame [...]

It was a simple Facebook post, the likes of which I’ve probably seen a dozen times.  It had a picture of a dorm room, with a friend’s caption, “My daughter is all moved [...]

Hi honeybees!  Sorry I abandoned you again yesterday. I was doing a thing! Not content to slack off from work for nearly two weeks in California, I took the rest of this week off to putter around [...]

I don’t sleep through the night, usually.  I wake up around 3:00 a.m., wide awake and curious, and can’t go back to sleep for an hour or so.  I’ve always assumed this was due to [...]

You might also like: New appearances: click here News: click here Latest blog posts (right column of the home page): click here      

Mark your calendars! Nutley Library Day is Saturday, November 14th, 2015 from 9:00 a.m. to 11 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, Clifton Commons, 385 Route 3 East, Clifton, New Jersey. I will be doing a [...]

Hi lovies.  I’m ba-ack!  Didn’t know I was gone?  That’s because I worked double-time before my whirlwind trip to California to leave a post a day scheduled.  I almost made it [...]

My life is not something I’d normally think of as easy. It’s not hard, mind you. I’m hardly complaining. But I’ve got to juggle day job work, writing work, child rearing, [...]

I feel bad for female Republicans.  I really do.  In order to fully embrace the “thought leaders” in their party (and I use the term “thought” loosely), they often have to [...]

If you’ve been around a while, you probably remember me asking for help getting to 25 fans (at which point Facebook lets you create a custom URL) and then to 100 fans (just for the triple [...]

Writing is a funny business.  On the one hand, to be a writer you have to be attuned to detail and emotion, which generally makes you a sensitive soul.  On the other hand, publishing, the murky [...]

Here’s something for the “creepy” file: when you search for local businesses, Google will soon start showing you a graph of the busiest and least busy times to visit.  Want to [...]

It has a name!  Not only a name, but a whole controversy!  I am not the only one to notice it and be driven mad by it. The vocal fry. I blame Paris Hilton for it.  She’s the first time I [...]

If you’re like most of my readers, you think you live in the United States (if you’re one of my international readers, so glad you’re here!  Read on to find out about our [...]

You’ve probably read stories about the copious amounts of abuse piled on Walter Palmer, the Minnesota dentist who admitted to killing famed lion Cecil on a hunting trip to Zimbabwe. You [...]