Its a good thing I log the books as I read them because otherwise I’d swear I must be missing some, but the truth is I only managed to read fifteen books this year. Not very impressive. In my defense I did write two books. And, if you count all the books I’ve read my [...]

NPR is doing an open poll to compile a list of the 100 Best Young Adult novels ever. Which, of course, was an irresistible challenge for me, though near impossible considering they ask you to limit your list to five (per post – I suppose you could go in an post a bunch of times if you [...]

With spring nearly here and a draft of Book Four done, it feels like the right time to set some goals and plans for the coming months…and we’re going heavy on the photos because they’re more fun than reading about this boring stuff.   SHORT TERM GOALS 1. Today – make green cupcakes. 4 y.o. has [...]

Disclaimer: This post has nothing to do with writing or books and none of the brilliant ideas are mine. I’ve been vacation planning for August – which seems ridiculously far away, but people book this stuff early so I guess I have to, too. We’ve decided to go to Venice and…some other places. That’s what I’ve been trying [...]

I started writing a retrospective on 2011, but to me this year still feels unfinished. There’s been a fair amount of change and uncertainty. I split with my agent, had a book come out, wrote two more whose futures are still being determined, flirted with the possibility of a TV series. A lot of stuff happened, a lot is [...]

I’m back from a couple weeks’ vacation where we did lots of stuff like this: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I read a couple books including my first Ellen Hopkins novel, Glass, which completely blew me away.  I didn’t even know it was in verse until I cracked [...]

We leave tomorrow for vacation.  There might or might not be blog activity, depending on our internet access along the way.  Just in case it falls to the “not” category, a quick run down… Here’s where we’ll be: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Here’s what I’ll be [...]

I know a lot of people are into scrapbooking – or at least that’s what HGTV would have me believe - but crafty stuff like that has never really been my thing. Still, I have collected restaurant matchbooks and event ticket stubs for years with the idea of collaging them together into some kind of wall art – an idea [...]

So this one didn’t take me to the wilds of Staten Island like the last quest I blogged about, but it did take me over the GWB to Leonia, New Jersey where I picked up this beauty: It all started last night at bedtime, when I was reading to the boys.  Son #2 is big into [...]

Greenville, Mississippi.  As deep in the South as I’ve even been, unless you count Florida or Mardi Gras.  I spent last weekend there, visiting my sister Cait who relocated about nine months ago.  Our hotel was right near the Mississippi River and around the corner from a part of downtown that looked like everyone had up and vanished in about 1960.  None [...]