Worry and Woe
Fierce
I used to be fierce. Not as fierce as Linda Hamilton in T2, although I coveted her biceps. Just fierce enough. It took me a long time to get there, and didn’t really happen until I was in my twenties. I’d been shy as a kid and a teen, but a combination of factors pushed…
Read MoreA Plan
So it appears that I need some structure. Without the kids here, demanding to be fed on a regular basis, I’m just wandering around the house, getting distracted by dirty socks and trying to keep them out of Harley’s mouth. Order is called for. My new schedule — just so you know — is to…
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 MoreTick Tock
Put a bunch of writers in a room and we all ask the same questions of each other: How long did it take you to finish your novel? What’s your writing schedule like? How long did it take to find an agent? How long before your book sold? How long did you spend on revisions?…
Read MoreWrite Hope
There’s no words, really, to cover what’s happened in Japan. I could try — words like horrific, heart-rending, and tragic come to mind — but they’re just words, black dots on a computer screen, typed from the comfort of a warm, safe office. I look at the pictures in the news and then at those…
Read MoreStealing Words
I’ve been struggling with what to say about the disasters that seem to be pressing in on every side these days. Sitting in my quiet kitchen, a snoring dog at my feet, they seem very far away. And then I pick up my children from school and my heart constricts at the pain another mother…
Read MoreWalkin' the Talk
I have books all over the house, with the possible exception of the guest bathroom. Mostly, I try to keep the books I wouldn’t want my kids to read stacked next to my bed. But sometimes I forget, and leave a book I’d prefer my daughter not to delve into out in the open, where…
Read MoreIf You're Under 18, Stop Reading. Seriously.
This post talks about censorship, sex and drugs. You’ve been warned. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what’s appropriate for kids to read. Partly, it’s because I have a book of my own out, and I’ve seen Evenfall listed as YA (Young Adult) in a couple of places. Every time I see that, or…
Read MoreHalfway There
I’ve been working under deadlines, professionally speaking, since I was around 20. (If you count deadlines I didn’t get paid for, like school newspapers and internships, you can bring the age down to about 12.) My first editor scared the bejesus out of me at a young age, and made it clear that short of…
Read MoreA Trying Day
Yesterday was a trying sort of day. I kept trying to write, but kept getting distracted. The slavering beast kept trying to remove the gutters from the house. (He succeeded, too, despite his bleeding gums.) My son kept trying to launch rockets onto inappropriate places, such as the top of the media cabinet,…
Read More