It’s hard to be a stay-at-home writer. I mean, it’s great . . . but it’s hard. You just don’t have that home/office distinction most people have, which means it’s easy to get to a place where you’re still in your pajamas at ten in the morning and dealing with plumbers and home repair guys, [...]
Entries from October 2008
October 26, 2008
Best Halloween Costume Ever!
It’s that time of year again–the time when a young girl’s fancy turns to thoughts of witches, ghosts, and things that go bump in the night. With four kids, I feel a certain amount of dread mixed in with more delicious kinds of anticipation as October 31 approaches: the process of getting everyone happily prepared [...]
October 21, 2008
May I Have THAT Problem, Please?
This weekend, The New York Times Sunday magazine published an interview with the MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. I’m a settled and staid matron and mother of four, and it’s been years since I’ve had a girl-crush, but lately I’ve found that my heart leaps in delight when Rachel appears on my TV. She’s smart and [...]
October 17, 2008
This Is Dedicated to the One I Love
If you’ve dreamed of being an author, you’ve probably dreamed about writing a dedication. In fact, the dedication-writing part may well have inspired the book-writing part. Long before I had a book agent and even longer before I had an editor, I used to daydream by writing imaginary dedications in my mind. They were kind [...]
October 13, 2008
Right on Target
I used to have big aspirations. When I was twelve, I wanted to write like Virginia Woolf. Really. I read everything she’d ever written and I wrote these endlessly long stream-of-consciousness stories that were all deep and pithy and emotional and meaningful and probably absolutely dreadful. Fortunately, my dreams have gotten smaller since then. I’m [...]
October 10, 2008
Part II: The Sequel: The Story Continues As We Revisit the Characters in a Return to Our Story
Sometimes I get fan e-mails. They always make me smile. But some of them make me smile AND scratch my head a little in befuddlement. Those are the ones that ask me whether or not I’m planning to write a sequel. Sometimes they even beg me to. It’s not that the idea of a sequel [...]
October 6, 2008
My Totally Rockin’ New York Party
Dear Diary, OMG, my book party was totally awesome! You should have seen me! I looked really really hot–like Paris Hilton hott only much classier ’cause she’s kind of skanky. I wore my kind-of-new-but-not-really-cause-I-wore-it-on-the-cruise-but-at-least-I didn’t-spill-anything-on-it black dress from bluefly.com–you know, the Park Vogel one with the gathers and the tie-front? it’s kind of plain but I wore it [...]
