My blog

Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event is a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and a chance to win some awesome [...]

Today I was honored and delighted to learn that THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY has been chosen as one of Wichita Public Library’s Companion Titles for Young Readers for their Big Read, which is [...]

When I was sixteen, I was all about the movie stars of the 1950s.  Not all of them, just the tragic ones. (Although, given enough time, most actors’ lives can take on a patina of tragedy, [...]

Anyone who has ever loved me, or even interacted with me in any significant way, has at one time or another offered the advice, “You should think less.” Well-meaning, of course, but [...]

What do you get when you put together something like 50 YA authors and thousands of YA readers in one cool space? The Texas Teen Book Festival! Here I am back at home after a whirlwind 35 hours [...]

I just learned something interesting: 48.6% of Los Angeles’ population is Latino. The most recent survey of books for young people (conducted every year by the Cooperative Children’s [...]

My top front teeth are a little snaggly. They’re perfectly lovely and healthy, but they just grew in at like a 13 degree angle to the rest of them. Every time I look at a picture of myself [...]

Hello, my favorite book worms!  I just got informed today that I’ll be participating in the YA Scavenger Hunt, a fun online game where readers win lots of great, bookish prizes. I will be [...]

This last week, I hung a painting in my kitchen. She’s not new. I started her years ago, inspired by some stylized image of a sprite. Back then, I went and bought the canvas – [...]

I will be at Nutley Library Day at the Clifton Commons Barnes and Noble (Clifton. New Jersey) on Saturday, November 14th at 4:00 p.m.  The event is for a great cause and a portion of everything [...]

Last night I had the most horrifically realistic nightmare. I was walking around my neighborhood – sometimes I was me as I am now, sometimes I was a child – and I suddenly became [...]

There are just eleven days to go for the Texas Teen Book Festival.  Today I just got a copy of the poster for my panel “Free to Be Me”… note that Maria from Sesame Street (Sonia [...]

I am something of a caffeine junkie. I always walk around fearing I’m not going to have enough energy for things, so I preemptively caffeinate. (Honestly, it’s a miracle I never [...]

As I write, a lush, late-summer rain falls quietly outside. It’s a good thing, too, because my area has seen one of the driest Augusts on record, with voluntary water restrictions announced [...]

I am not what you would call a consumer. I hate the mall.  I spend next to nothing on clothes. I don’t eat out a ton or waste money on frivolous things, for the most part. I food shop with [...]

This weekend, my daughter and I went to Barnes and Noble so that I could work on my manuscripts.  One is a full, completed draft and the other is the start of a different story. In solidarity, [...]

There have been many small joys in the year since my book was published. There have been reviews – mostly kind – media attention, invitations to prestigious book festivals. Today, I [...]

There is an ad popping up all over my Facebook profile.  Every time I’m on, there it is.  It’s for something called Help Scout, which, I guess, scouts out help for you?  (The details [...]

Don’t be afraid of the lost page Or the skipped paragraph Or the ending that breaks your heart Just read Don’t pick the safe stuff The book on the lists – not just that one, [...]

I have done a bajillion appearances for my book since it came out (yes, bajillion. It’s a thing). I have spent more time in airports and planes in the last eighteen months than in all the [...]

I have every diary I’ve ever written since I was twelve years old.  Today, looking for a missing cheese knife for a party I’m hosting, of all things, I found one from 2006, separate [...]

The other day, I asked my daughter to clean up her room.  She did, then came out and said, “You know what I need?  Some bins for inside that trunk in my room.” “Good [...]

You know how marriage is between one man and one woman? And how sometimes it’s between that same woman and a different man? And, then, how it can be between yet again that woman and a third [...]

Have you ever just wanted to hug a room full of people all at once?  That’s how I felt at the NYC Teen Author Night last night at the Jefferson Market branch of the New York Public Library. [...]

I didn’t intend to write about my children today. Just yesterday I thought, “I only write about parenting, writing and, occasionally, when I can’t sleep, The Man Situation. I [...]

I am a woman who doesn’t care one bit about the state of my vehicle.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, I want it to work. But if I have to hold it together with duct tape, I am thoroughly [...]