Recently, a thread in an online writer’s community popped up, beginning with someone (who hadn’t begun querying) asking why folks sent query letters to so many agents. Did they have that many “dream agents? Why not send to just one or two top choices? And, really, how long does it take? Answers flew in—achingly honest … Read more
Unless it’s in service to a story, I avoid deep thought. But avoidance only stretches so far; when it became time to write a think piece on why I wrote that particular book (hiding inside a marriage, traumatic brain injuries, coma, emotional abuse, rageful words—stop me!), the murky connective tissues of linking why I write any novel, in particular, confronted … Read more
Answering questions off the cuff is my favorite way of presenting—surprising (embarrassing?) myself with on-my-feet answers as I stumble into learning things I didn’t know about myself. Thus, when author Anjali Mitter Duva asked me to participate in the Arlington Author Salon, I was thrilled—until I cringed, imagining filling fifteen minutes without seeing or interacting with … Read more
My sister and I are great liars. World-class liars. Maybe we were born with the trait (after all, our paternal grandmother’s top hobby was shoplifting.) Brooklyn-born Great-Aunt Sally (Jewish, like the rest of the family) pretended to be Catholic and French — and swore she attended the Sorbonne. She even spoke English with a Gallic … Read more
I grew up with the idea that the size of my body was the most important thing in the world—and that my body was always too large. When I look back at pictures, I see me at normal, chubby, and large—but at no time did I ever see myself as anything but too big … Read more