Good Reads
Balance
If you are a slightly shy person with introvert tendencies, publishing a book will not change that. You will simply become a slightly shy person with a book to sell (and, if you are lucky, a large poster of that book to hide behind). IF you are really, really lucky, you’ll get to take that…
Read MoreNobody Likes A Wet Dog, And Other Catch Phrase Creepage
We’re doing some spring cleaning here, and I’m trying to wrangle all the books back into their respective homes. The baby books we can’t bear to part with go in the basement (Carl’s Birthday, anyone?), the books we love the most go in the living room bookcase, the kid books and the books I don’t…
Read MoreGuest Post! Creating Characters That Grow
For me, one of the most interesting and challenging parts of writing character-driven books is making sure my protagonists stretch and change in a believable way. Frodo from The Lord of the Rings series is my shining example of this: He starts off the series as a happy-go-lucky little hobbit with good intentions, and ends…
Read MoreOf Ghouls, Ghosts, and Gingerbread
I’m a creature of habit. Every few years I reread The Lord of the Rings series, along with The Hobbit. I hit Emma and Pride and Prejudice in the winter. Fall is reserved for comfort reading — and a few good scares. For the first, there’s nobody better than Laurie Colwin. I first discovered her…
Read MoreWhoosh!
That’s the sound summer makes as it is flies by. Can you hear it? The kids start school in just over a week, and there’s still a long list of things we want to do. More time! I need more time! But the time we’ve had so far has been pretty special. Long days on…
Read MoreBlast-Ended Skewts and Dogs for Rent
This is Harley. Harley came to us when he was an adorable puppy and looked like this. Now he looks like this. Harley has many positive attributes. He is firm in his belief that the only good squirrel is a dead squirrel. He thinks teenagers should have 9 p.m. curfews, and if their parents insist…
Read MoreThe Kool-Aid, I Am Drinking It
You know how I’ve written that I prefer actual paper books to these new-fangled electronic readers? And I do, truly. Except that, um, I may have seen the light a little. I’m using my Kindle to read drafts by other writers, and my IPad when I need to read a book for my book club quickly,…
Read MoreScooby Dooby Doo, I See You
Every other week I spend a few minutes volunteering at the school library. It’s a fun, quiet half hour for me before I walk down to the Kindergarten class and the controlled chaos of a swarm of six-year-olds. I chat with the aide who runs the library (she’s a saint — the librarian position was axed…
Read MoreRandom Woos and Bad Big Brown Dogs
I know, I know, I’ve been slacking. I started out with such good intentions, but somehow my three posts a week have dwindled to an anorexic one or two. I promise to be better in April. It will be SPRING! and WARM! and everyone will be HAPPY! (Those of us who live in New England…
Read MoreLibrary Love
Can I just, for a moment, reiterate how awesome my home town library is? My advance PR team came along (that would be my parents) and what greeted us in the lobby but a poster with Evenfall and my face on it? (It was a little bit horrifying, to be honest, but the librarian behind…
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