I had a great Sunday afternoon. Why? Because I spent it with authors and illustrators of children’s books–always a great, varied, and energetic group of people. I was invited to a virtual meeting of SCBWI Nebraska. I talked about how the various categories of children’s books are performing, how some audience and market expectations are […]

Today I edited bayside at San Diego Bay, near Maritime Museum of San Diego. I enjoyed my view of Californian (the official tall ship of the state of California), and the San Salvador replica (the original first sailed into San Diego in 1542). The main museum is 1898 steam ferryboat Berkeley from San Francisco Bay. […]

Have you seen the first images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope? They get my imagination all whirled up as I try to wrap my head around the depths of space. Inspired, I set up my mobile editing office at the San Diego Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park today. I get a kick […]

Joey Chestnut can. Oh, and don’t forget the 76 buns — because he ate those, too. Today was the Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Championship, held every 4th of July. When I wrote BIG MOUTH, a middle grade novel about a boy who aspires to be the world’s greatest competitive eater, the Nathan’s Famous […]

It was my honor to edit the Purple Project’s picture book PENNY’S ADVENTURES IN SAN DIEGO. Sales benefit victims of domestic violence and abuse. For this book, thirteen San Diego County mayors and a deputy mayor each penned a chapter of a story about a kind-hearted purple butterfly named Penny visiting their respective cities and […]

The average American checks their phone 47 times a day. 23 billion text messages are sent each day worldwide. 98% of US smartphone users send text messages regularly. American smartphone owners aged 18-24 send around 2000 text in a month.* With texting behavior like that, texting is going to show up in our novels. But […]

I’ve recently been working to re-establish my long-abandoned habit of taking a physical book EVERYWHERE, even tucking it into my grocery bag to read while in the checkout line. Like many book lovers, as a kid I’d walk to school with an open book in my hands, never once tripping as I read. I imagined […]