Recently I listened to Joe Queenan—author of a book about his love of books and reading—on NPR (the soundtrack of my life) eager for the pleasure of hearing someone who reads
About when I turned ten I began crafting my library checkouts, hoping I’d look smart. I’d balance my Nancy Drew with a biography of Abraham Lincoln, so the librarian thought
Here’s a big fat lie: Stick and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you. Words slice to the bone. When we explode, we’re not out of
The perfect first line. How we chase it, scrambling phrases and our brains, seeking magic words to pop open our stories like magic keys.( Sometimes I want to create
I suppose they were meant to teach me reading skills. And the goodness of clean living. But what The Bobbsey Twins taught me was needle sharp envy. Freddie and Flossie
My dear friend and neighbor, Linda, sent me this rubber duck, which she made into a duck reading my book. Reading Duck oversees the bathroom and cannot be moved. If
“At work, you think of the children you have left at home. At home, you think of the work you’ve left unfinished. Such a struggle is unleashed within yourself. Your
In the weeks before my debut novel released, I resembled a child anticipating her jump from single digit birthdays to the doubles: 10! I could barely sleep—my husband groaned as
Everyone has something that keeps them going when nothing else will do. For some it’s cupcakes. Others choose wine. My husband has football. I have beauty magazines. I’m not exactly
I’m wiggling back into my new novel, and like many complicated tasks—knitting a sweater for an elephant, cooking a gluten-free banquet for four hundred vegans—I need to regain my rhythm
“In the airport, coming home from vacation, he stops at a kiosk and buys grapefruits, which he arranges to have sent to his daughters. They will stumble over the crates
Awhile ago I wrote my warning about falling for the ‘bad boy.’ Now it’s time to figure out if you have one lying next to you. And what kind. You
“But it really happened.” I was in an adult-ed writer’s group when I first heard this. I’d watched the woman speaking become tenser and grimmer as members of the group—gently
Do book trailers sell books? Is that the question, or should you ask which book trailer could help sell my book? Trailers aren’t monolithic products that work or don’t. Like books,
I tried to think of a, um, sexier title for this post, but they all sounded, um, icky, and the last thing I want when I’m writing about sex is
When I was a kid, nothing was better than listening to my Aunt Thelma’s stories. She’d take humiliating awful situations and transform them into eye-popping, comic-tragic tales. Her pain was
I woke up (just moments ago) with the proverbial pounding three am heart. I had a nightmare about trying to convince unresponsive authorities about young girls being attacked. The specifics
These are the many types of relationships I’ve had: Sad. Obsessive. Pathetic. Boring. Are you kidding me? “Do you think he has a drinking problem?” Liar, liar, pant’s on fire.
It’s sure nice to have love where it’s not the sad songs that provide the theme. Thank you, Jeff.
By Dell Smith Beyond the Margins finally persuaded Dell Smith’s good friend Ryan Gosling to take time out of his busy schedule as an Internet meme to shine a little love our way. Give it up
“My definition (for myself) of a working title is: A title that doesn’t work.” Robin Black Picture having a baby. You named that baby so soon after conception. Dear
It’s funny how folks who work at home (writers, painters, composers, phone-sex workers, though not those who use Skype visuals) will so often use “working in my pajamas! as their
The only thing I didn’t love about Diamond Ruby by Joseph Wallace was finishing it, because then it was over and I had to leave her world. Lucky you, you
Halloween is all about haunting. The unrelenting hold of ghosts. The unbearable-to-resist sweetness of candy. Ghosts that haunt are products of the living: relatives dead and alive, past loves, remembered