My blog

Why do Iowa and New Hampshire get to have their primaries first? What stops, say, New Jersey, from deciding it’s going to move its primary up, thus making itself more politically relevant? [...]

This is a review of the movie, not the book. Alas, I have yet to read the book. Written by Gillian Flynn, the author of Gone Girl, I need to check it out, but haven’t. But the movie, peeps! [...]

Writing about my Feng Shui journey yesterday made me think of my spiritual practices today. As explained yesterday, it is a bit of a mishmosh of all the things I have found comfort in – [...]

One of the main questions I get from teens is “How do you become a writer?” (To which I say, first and foremost, yay, writers!). My short answer, which I don’t at all mean to be [...]

I always say that Feng Shui was my “gateway drug” to spirituality. Raised Catholic but never able to connect to the traditional dogma, I decided when I was fifteen years old that I [...]

Recently I learned that someone I care about is having trouble with their teenage child. It’s trouble of the major variety, requiring professional intervention. My heart aches for them. [...]

I’m drowning. The water comes up fast, and I know I can’t hold on. Drowning. Then… I can only describe him as an apparition – an angel – a man I’d never seen before and would never see again [...]

I am slightly suspicious of the efficient. As a classically-trained virtuoso of a procrastinator, people who get things done on time just creep me out a bit. Just what are they up to? [...]

It’s not exactly that I want civilization to end or anything like that. It’s more that I have a strange fascination with the idea. While other summer readers are picking up a romance or a good [...]

In the last week or so I have written about my pessimism with the direction the rhetoric has taken in this (still far-off) presidential election. Specifically, when Donald Trump said that he [...]

The other day I got a letter from a reader that said, “I loved your book. But I wish the boyfriend would have stayed longer!” I tend to agree with her. The boyfriend in THE SECRET [...]

A few days ago I told you I’d gotten word about TSSoE being mentioned on SLJ. The link is finally online! Click here to read the full piece, which is entitled  “Long-Awaited Mirrors: [...]

Yesterday, I heard Chris Cuomo on CNN refer to himself as “second generation American.” Son of the former (now late) governor of New York, Mario Cuomo, and grandson to Italian [...]

New obsession alert: this weekend I chomped through the entire first season of The Man in the High Castle, an Amazon original production. (An aside: I love that Netflix and now Amazon are [...]

I love getting emails from readers! I try to be good about replying to all of them, although sometimes it takes me a while. This email, from a student who wants to be a writer and is doing a [...]

Thanks so much to School Library Journal for highlighting THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY in their “Libro por libro” section. The article is called “Long-Awaited: YA and memoirs for [...]

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” Matthew 25:35 I was appalled but not surprised when one governor [...]

Thank you so much to the wonderful staff at Nutley Library and the Clifton Commons Barnes and Noble for a great day of bookish fun! I was delighted to speak to the great group there, especially [...]

So many pixels will be aimed in your direction now, dear Paris. Mine will hardly count. I have kept you in my back pocket, waiting to visit you at the right time. So I don’t even have a [...]

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I was recently asked what my five favorite books are. Of course that’s impossible to decide.  My favorite books change from day to day and mood to mood.  As it it I am usually reading at [...]

You’ve probably heard (or uttered) a lament about how email killed letters.  “We used to send cards,” people will say (probably exaggerating just how much they actually did it, [...]

A few days ago, I read on my town’s email list that an elderly resident had died. Few people had memories to share of him. Some mention was made about his work with the American Legion. [...]

CLASP Américas Award Commended Titles of 2015 I just found out that THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY was named as one of the CLASP Américas Award Commended Titles of 2015.  CLASP stands for Consortium of [...]

At the start of November, I came into a little extra cash. Wanting to offer myself a fun splurge that “keeps on giving,” I contemplated many of the “pick of the [...]

I remember the thrill I felt when I first saw my native New Jersey featured in a Judy Blume novel back when I was a kid. How could this be? No book I’d ever read was set in New Jersey. [...]

I am losing my war on Christmas. The other day, I walked into my local drugstore, fully three weeks before Thanksgiving. Someone had vomited red stockings and cheap plastic NOEL signs all down [...]

The other night, CNN aired a special about the contested 2000 election between Gore and Bush. My son, who was a zygote in my belly a few weeks old when said election took place and now stands six [...]

Just kidding! You didn’t really think I’d wasted valuable time on a message I can get for free any time on any network, right? No, silly. I’m a busy girl. It’s just that I [...]

Today I got a request for review copies of my book for a big state award. (I’m not sure of the protocol of announcing these things, so for now I shall be very vague). It means nothing [...]