Category Archives: On Parenting
Own Your Opinions, Kids
One of my children told me recently that he couldn’t ever be a reviewer — of books, art, restaurants, or a sports columnist — because he didn’t want to hurt people’s feelings. (Never mind that just a few weeks before, … Continue reading
Faulkner For Kids?
At a recent visit to my children’s pediatrician, the doctor asked, “Have you ever read your kids that children’s book by Faulkner?” He said he read it to his kids a lot when they were younger, that it was their … Continue reading
Does Publishing A Novel Change Your Life?
My book’s launch party felt a little like a wedding. Well, one where my five children had already been born, and were racing around jacked up on chocolate-dipped strawberries. The bash was in an old brownstone in Boston. There was … Continue reading
Daring to Care: What fostering animals taught me about parenting
The kids were clamoring for a new pet. A year earlier we’d said goodbye to our dog, and before that, the cat. In between was an unsuccessful series of hermit crabs. When each one crossed that proverbial rainbow bridge in … Continue reading
The One Who Won’t See It
I saw the first copy of my hardcover the other day. I won’t have it in-hand until next week, but my publisher needed a mockup for a magazine photo shoot. So the jpg appeared in my inbox, cheeky as the … Continue reading
Hobbies? What Hobbies?
A friend was talking about her Pinterest boards recently, and how she’d added a new board for “hobbies.” Since Pinterest was her latest hobby, she laughed, it was like a hobby within a hobby. “I don’t even know what I’d … Continue reading
The Juggling Act
I was once asked this question in an advice column for writers on their way toward agents and book contracts. “How do people just write, then pause, make dinner and whatnot, and then go back to writing?” Maybe it was … Continue reading
