This weekend I squeezed in some writing at the ultra busy Borders Cafe. At one point, in dire need of a laptop charge, I spotted an open armchair next to an outlet and rushed over to plug in. The writer in the armchair next to me leaped up and rushed to my vacated table. Another […]

Silence disturbs me. I can’t read without music, and I certainly can’t write without it. Perhaps not oddly, there was a blip in my aversion to silence when I found myself surrounded by infant triplets twenty-four hours a day, but now that those babies are kindergarteners and don’t cry nearly so much, I’m back to […]

My good friend, Postal Worker Jane, just doorbell-ditched me. She does that, stopping her truck in front of my house to deliver my mail to my doorstep instead of making me hike all the way across the street to my mailbox. She started that practice when my boys were babies, and she’s still doing it […]

Remember that “Yes Challenge” I took a couple of weeks ago, where I was supposed to say “Yes” 70 times a day for 7 days? Well, I did it, and I learned four things …

I’m honored to be the guest blogger today on author Cynthia Leitich Smith’s fabulous blog “Cynsations.” Cynthia is a New York Times and Publishers Weekly best-selling author of YA Gothic fantasies, including Tantalize and Eternal, as well as several picture books for children. Here’s a teaser from my guest post about setting in YA novels, […]

I may not be able to remember what day it is, but I can spot a fellow author at a hundred paces. Last week, sometime around Wednesday, I lost track of which day it was. On Thursday, I was convinced it was Wednesday and so did not take my sons to their Thursday afternoon jui-jitsu […]