I’m a PTO mom, and yes, I have a ponytail and yoga pants, but I don’t drive a minivan so there’s that. My kids started school, and I started volunteering—helping in the classroom, baking the occasional cookie, leading the grandparents to the gym for the big concert—oh, and I’m also part of an amazing group […]
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Guest Blogging My Sweet Tooth
Hi Friends,Just a heads up that I’ll be guest-blogging over at the site of best-selling author and psychologist Dr. Susan Albers (www.eatq.com/blog) for the entire month of February. It’s all part of her Mindful Eating Chocolate Challenge. Did you know yours truly has a HUGE sweet tooth? ‘Tis true. Dr. Albers has given me a […]
It can’t tune in Helsinki, but it can hold my Cuisinart.
It’s so much fun to take something that’s not getting much use and turn it into something both practical and beautiful. In my dining room, I’m currently using vintage test tubes as flower vases. In the living room, an antique shadow box explaining the tadpole to frog life cycle does a turn as our end table. And […]
Everything You Never Knew You Wanted to Know About Sestinas
So, some exciting news from the closet today. I’ve been published in McSweeneys! The piece is a quirky little letter, written in the form of a sestina, from a resident of the fictional Fox Hills neighborhood to the homeowner’s association regarding the type of bow residents are allowed to affix to their mailboxes at the holidays.I wrote the piece many […]
Redesigning my writing, my life, and my closet
For the past year, I’ve been rewriting my debut novel, “Come As You Are.” And I do mean re-writing. I had completed many surface revisions in the years prior, had pursued agents thinking that, the next one I contacted would be the one, all the while pushing down the nagging thought that my book might […]
Hitting Bottom
I gave up on my debut novel sometime over the summer. I’d written, re-written, queried agents, gotten requests for fulls, but no offers of representation, only scant comments alluding to how nicely it was written (Then, why don’t you want it? Arrrghhh!) and brief, sometimes confusing, allusions to what wasn’t working. I cut scenes I […]
Still Crazy
Last night, I was at a party with some people I hadn’t seen in awhile, which means I had to answer the oft-repeated question, “How’s the book coming?” This question isn’t so easy to answer anymore. First of all, which book? The one I thought was “finished”? The one I just started? The one I have […]
The Romantics
So, I’m proud to say that in the past week, I’ve actually created a new folder on my laptop with the title of my work-in-progress. I then proceeded to type “Chapter One” and wrote an opening paragraph that I am totally in love with, plus a pretty decent first scene introducing my protagonist (and a […]