My blog

Every year, my ex and I alternate who gets the kids on Thanksgiving. The one that doesn’t have them just celebrates Thanksgiving on Friday. This year, it was my turn to do Friday [...]

One thousand four hundred and thirty four days left to survive until the next presidential election. They are days we must not let go by idly. Sure, it’s easy to relax, focus on decorating [...]

Our president-elect (heaven help me, it still hurts to write that) tweeted yesterday that he won the popular vote but for the “millions of people who voted illegally.” Ummm… no. [...]

A few weeks ago, I was in New Orleans, and it started pouring. I’m talking buckets, like it rains in tropical places, warm and relentless. We had a long walk to where the car was parked, [...]

The Brady Bunch ran from September 26, 1969, a year before I was born, to March 8, 1974, when I was three, almost four. It went into reruns after that, a constant in my childhood. Living in a [...]

It’s raining So today I prayed for the faraway stars to send their stardust And everything that comes with it. Peace and dreams and happiness.             [...]

Yale historian and Holocaust expert Timothy Snyder wrote on Facebook: “Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage [...]

I am hungry… no, aching… for frivolity. So thank you in advance for letting me indulge. I’ll go back to spewing fire soon, probably after the holiday. I’m just as [...]

I have watched my friends and the media grapple with the question of why white voters flocked to Trump. People who want to believe the best in people (including most Republicans) seem to prefer [...]

Since the election, I’ve been dreading Thanksgiving. I’m one of the lucky ones, and everyone that comes to the dinner I host is on the same page politically, so I don’t have [...]

No matter that he’s a stuffed moose – look at this kiss he’s planting on me. This is one of my favorite pictures of me from Alaska, because I look happy, rosy from the frigid [...]

When I first read The New Jim Crow, a book about how drug laws actually serve many of the same uses as Jim Crow laws, I was absolutely electrified, but frustrated that most people who don’t [...]

Since the U.S. presidential election, I have been bombarded by Facebook messages and emails from friends and family overseas. Their question is simple: “What the hell is going on over [...]

As my grief about last week’s election settles into something resembling normalcy, I find myself of two minds. You’ve seen a lot of my first reaction: fight. I continue try to [...]

I woke up at 4:00 for an early flight today. I’m not a “spring out of bed” kind of girl, so I checked out my Facebook feed while I tried to shake my groggy head awake. What I [...]

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I do not hold Trump in high esteem, but I do have to hand him this: he does propaganda better than anyone I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. He [...]

I know how frustrating it is to watch events unfold and feel powerless, especially if you’re not eligible to vote. This presidential election made a lot of people feel that way. But you are [...]

Last night I went into Manhattan to support a dear friend at her book panel. I hadn’t felt too much energy to go, because this week had been sad and devastating. But I’d promised [...]

Many of us spent the better part of this week reeling. The shock and pain have had their use. We can continue to grieve for the America we thought we lived in – more inclusive, tolerant and [...]

This was originally posted by a novelist with whom I’m friends on Facebook. I found it so powerful I asked if I could share with full attribution. This person requested I post it [...]

I have a busy mind, and I don’t do well with just keeping it idle. I don’t mean to make that sound super high brow. I have watched and read a lot of fluff in my life, whatever is [...]

I continue to ache at what happened in this election. Oh, sure, I’ve been disappointed by election results before (2000 comes to mind), but I’ve never been genuinely afraid for our [...]

Here is just one shot of the thousands of people turning out to protest the election of this thoroughly unqualified man. I am far away and ache to join them. Protests are happening in San [...]

It was, perhaps, the most appropriate if grotesque place to mourn the 2016 presidential election: an old Louisiana plantation. I’d been long planning to use my last day in New Orleans to [...]

I have had my share of devastation. I have had those moments in which life changes forever. You try to hold on and tell yourself it won’t, but even as it’s unfolding you feel a [...]

I thought I’d cry, but I am numb. Scared to my bones. I went to sleep close to 3:00 local (4:00 am Eastern), with a list of results to check in the morning. Michigan, Wisconsin, [...]

Sweet ones: It is 2:30 on the East Coast, and this presidential race seems all but called for the candidate I never seriously imagined might win. For millions of people like me who believe he is [...]

I was twelve years old the first time I got groped. If you’re a regular reader, you’ve read this story before, because I’ve written about it at least twice. I was walking home [...]

I don’t think if you’re on here I really need to explain this to you, because you probably wouldn’t be on the website of the author of a book about an undocumented immigrant if [...]

I’m so grateful you’re here! Looking for something? Here are a few of the most popular areas on the site: Looking for information about my novel, THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY? Do you need [...]