Writing

I came back from California with some pretty wicked jet lag, so I didn’t get as much done in the garden this Saturday as I might have liked (oh, napping is divine).  But I DID get some good [...]

I have had many pets in my life and I have loved all of them.  Still, when one goes, it’s hard not to think they were the most special.  So is the case with Misty the ferret. I got Misty [...]

  This is the view from where I’m staying in San Francisco today.  Pretty awesome, right? 2015 was supposed to be the year of the “no travel” after the madness of 2014. [...]

I got a sneak peek at the covers-in-progress for the paperback edition of THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY (which will hit bookshelves September 1st)… and I loved them both!  I can’t quite [...]

Not too long ago, an editor from a column I’d love to “crack” sent out a tip about pitching him an idea.  It said: “Don’t put two spaces after a period.  I instantly [...]

On March 20th, I resolved to unburden myself of 27 things each day for 27 days.  Many friends said I was crazy and wondered how I’d ever do it.  Today, with a final book put in a donation [...]

What does it mean to be a prolific writer? A short while back, a writing buddy shocked me by saying she admired my writing output.  Surely she must have just been blowing smoke.  One of my deep, [...]

In November, 2014, President Obama announced that he was providing relief via executive order to millions of people currently living undocumented in the United States.  Since then, some states [...]

I am a big fan of something called “life hacks.”  They generally come in the form of articles and they show you clever ways to solve simple household problems.  For example, cutting [...]

The Big Spring Clean continues full steam ahead.  On Day 15, I am past the halfway point and I feel absolutely liberated.  (For those of you just tuning in – I am getting rid of 27 things a [...]

There it was in my Facebook feed, one of those ads for new apps I normally just scroll past.  The first one caught my eye because it annoyed me so much.  It was called “Facetune” and [...]

Yesterday I was delighted to learn that THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY was chosen as one of the Top 50 Secondary titles of 2015 by Kiss the Book and presented last week to the Utah state [...]

Do you ever find yourself feeling a kind of ownership over something or someone you found first?  Like a quirky foreign film you happened to stumble upon at an art house theater, only to have it [...]

Sunday I kind of slacked on the Big Spring Clean.  Oh, don’t get me wrong, I purged 27 items.  More than 27, actually.  I raided my bathroom closet and got rid of at least 40 old creams and [...]

Happiness has returned to my life and its name is… gardening!! I have tried really hard to stay positive through the end of this interminable winter. But just like the urge to pee gets [...]

This weather, which teases every weekend that it will let me out to garden, but then doesn’t, is so deeply disappointing. But what is disappointment, really? It is a failure – of a [...]

I have a category of things in my mind that’s labeled “Real American.” I started filing things in there early. When I was four, my Malibu Barbie with her big, round sunglasses [...]

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Germanwings pilot who (allegedly) flew the plane into the mountain with 149 people aboard. I see that the general reaction seems to be anger and [...]

I am researching book # 4, which is set about 50-100 years in the future.  I wanted to check out what sea levels might look like then to figure out where to set certain events. I came across this [...]

Writing a book takes a lot of different skills: the ability to plan and stick to the plan (and know when to chuck the plan when it’s not working).  The ability to silence the little critic [...]

Every year, I go a little nuts on my garden spending.  I’ll gladly forego a new outfit for a beautiful hydrangea (or five).  I’ll hold off on a haircut just to fund my rue and hyssop [...]

The New York City Teen Author Festival was non-stop fun and The Big Thinks – ideas, conversation, questions.  It was a lot to take in.  I found a wonderful blog wrap-up of the Saturday [...]

I have made it a week!  I embarked on a quest to get rid of 27 things each day for 27 days (here’s the original post explaining the project) and I am a little over 25% done. Here’s [...]

I shan’t bore you with the details of my day-to-day attempt to unburden myself of 27 things a day for 27 days (total: 729!) but I will check in with you about it periodically. I am feeling [...]

My idea of a perfect Sunday afternoon: hanging out at the inimitable Books of Wonder, NYC’s super-awesome bookstore for children and teens, signing books, talking to readers and getting to [...]

Diversity has been a buzzword in young adult literature this past year.  In particular, the We Need Diverse Books campaign has made a lot of strides in bringing attention to the issues of [...]

Check out this eager crowd!  There is nothing quite like reading from your book to hundreds of middle school students sitting in rapt attention.  Such a privilege.  Thank you, Chatham Square [...]

“If you want to change your life, move 27 things,” goes an ancient Chinese proverb.  My life is pretty darn awesome, so I don’t want to change it so much as I want to keep the [...]

Today is the first day of spring, but only in that it says so on the calendar.  We’re in the midst of getting snow.  Yes, again.  Because nature is a maniac now. Here’s a beautiful [...]

Legends say that beneath this wintry wasteland (photographed below) was once a land called Patio. Old-timers tell that in this magical kingdom, the people prepared for rituals called barbecues [...]