Writing

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 [...]

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 [...]

I have written a lot about letting go of all the things you can’t control in the publishing process. The cover (this is the one that surprises most non-publishing types. No, authors [...]

I am not one to pine for the good old days of television, back when there were three main channels and cartoons only on Saturday morning. But there’s one way in which I do pine for them: I [...]

It makes me sad when I hear young women say they don’t consider themselves feminists. The word has gotten some bad PR, but the concepts have benefited most women living in the United States [...]

I sometimes have a hard time making sense of words and acronyms. I am hopeless at word scrambles and, contrary to what people usually imagine, totally stink at Scrabble. (So much so that [...]

I am not a prude when it comes to clothing. I have been known to highlight my, ahem, assets, throughout my life. I have boobs that can cause major distraction in a push-up bra, so I deploy them [...]

This will be my third year of signing up for National Novel Writing Month. For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo is a project started in 1999 by freelance writer Chris Baty in which writers of all [...]

Whenever I am feeling unmotivated to write, I pack up my laptop and printed manuscripts and take them on the road. My destination of choice is the cafe at my local Barnes and Noble in what is [...]

About a year ago, I started reading a book that had been personally recommended to me. I *sort of* knew the author and there was much to suggest I’d love the book. But, oh, I didn’t. [...]

I am not what you would call a famous author. With just one book that’s enjoyed modest success, I’m not exactly getting mobbed as I walk down the street (and I’m grateful for [...]

Many, many moons ago, at the advent of my spiritual journey, I bought a cassette with a guided meditation on it. (That it was on cassette should give you a clue at how long ago it was). On it, a [...]

Yesterday I did an event at a school about twenty minutes away from my house. I found out before the event that it was falling on the school’s “spirit day,” a day when students [...]

Today I was lucky enough to visit Passaic County Technical Institute in New Jersey to talk about my book to a great group of students. Such fun! We had a great, wide-ranging talk that covered [...]

When I first moved into this house nearly sixteen years ago, I approached landscaping it with the zeal only a the new homeowner can muster. Among my more impractical purchases was one of those [...]

I had a house full of people here last night, so I missed the Democratic presidential debate. Feeling like a bad Democrat, I fired up YouTube on my TV this morning as the kids still slept and put [...]

This weekend I saw more than the usual number of pictures of writer friends at fabulous book festivals. I was happy for them, of course. But I caught myself feeling some agitation. What was it? [...]

Turns out University of Texas-Austin is planning on allowing the carrying of weapons on campus starting August, 2016. Understandably, many students are less than thrilled (thank you, Austin [...]

I am one of the 41 million Americans in the U.S. today (out of roughly 319 million, or about 13 percent) who were born outside of the United States. One of the great themes of my life was been a [...]

I don’t normally have such a visceral reaction to a single episode of a television series that I vow to never watch it again. But it happened on Sunday. Last year, I watched Season 1 of The [...]

It was in kindergarten when my children first came home with the tales of active shooter drills. They didn’t call them that, of course. They’d say things like, “Today the [...]