Category Archives: On Writing
Interviewing Fredrik Backman
I love when the local bookstore asks me to interview a visiting author, making it a Q&A-style event instead of a reading. I like that better in my own events too, more of a conversation than a monologue. That unscripted … Continue reading
Not just the facts
I was getting ready for an interview recently, a follow-up phone call for a magazine piece profiling a semi-famous person. An entrepreneur who’d started off on the completely wrong foot before finding the right calling as a television personality, and … Continue reading
Cottage courage
Last week, we moved across town to a house on the edge of the woods, up against 13 acres of an abandoned farm. I went walking and found this in the forest not 300 yards from our back door. The … Continue reading
First You Crawl
I went to a dance pageant recently, a holiday performance of ballet, modern and jazz with local girls age 6-16. Actually, I have no idea how old the dancers were. Some were clearly 25, which is amazing, since I know … Continue reading
The Demise of Private Writing?
Shortly after my novel came out, I got an interesting email from a reader. She said she hadn’t been sure she would like a book half written in the form of journals, but had been grabbed by the point of … Continue reading
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
Author One-on-One: Nichole Bernier and Dani Shapiro
Dani Shapiro: This is your first novel after years of being a magazine editor and writer. What made you decide to write this story? Joan Didion describes material she wants to write as having “a shimmer” around its edges. What … Continue reading
Say What You Mean To Say
Words matter. They matter whether you say them or write them, because you never know how you might impact someone. And words don’t have an expiration date. That was the message of a blog post (http://beyondthemargins NULL.com/2012/04/the-power-of-words/) by a colleague of mine … Continue reading
On Rejection and the Beautiful Blueberry
I was not in the best of moods the other morning. It was gray and sleeting, and I’m guilty of letting weather affect me. The to-do list seemed overwhelming, and the calendar said there were to be no babysitting hours … Continue reading
Out Of My Comfort Zone
The other day I stood at the camera angle of this hallway, which was even creepier and darker than it looks (the iPhone has a decent flash). To say the walls were crumbling would be an understatement; where the drywall … Continue reading
