I think maybe all of us have an Etta James song that speaks to us, maybe ten. The singer, who died a few days ago, had a way of making those words spear straight into you. You didn’t just listen, you ached. One of my favorite songs is one of her most famous, “At Last.” This song ate me up during a time in my life when I felt it …Read more
Songs of Misery, Rage, and Revenge
My anti-Valentine collection of short stories, many of them reprinted from literary magazines, will include something I hope is useful — a playlist of songs that will soothe all the trampled …Read more
What *I’m* gonna do in 2012
I don’t do New Year’s resolutions anymore. People who know about my last one remember how THAT turned out. (She’s nine and STILL doesn’t eat vegetables.) But I do have plans …Read more
The mixed blessing of the holidays
I don’t think anyone who has lost someone close to them ever feels purely happy during the holidays. I remember as a child, having a very clean joy. I was …Read more
My middle grade novel is out in the world — welcome, Jinnie Wishmaker!
I’ve been kinda quiet about a little marketing experiment I got involved in with BooksonBoard.com. This company, one of the largest independent e-book retailers online, decided a few months ago …Read more
Stella & Dane Excerpt 3: Grandma’s last jewels
Earlier in the novel you learn that Stella considers her grandmother to be her mother figure. But she’s been sent home from the nursing home in hospice care for end-stage …Read more
On writing love scenes at 7 a.m.
So last night Stella and Dane finally got to meet, carefully dove tailing this introduction to the way it was described in Baby Dust. Of course, Dane already HAS a …Read more
