In honor of International Women’s Day, I wanted to share some of my favorite contemporary female authors. Who are your favorites? Here they are (from top, left to right), along with the books that made me love them: Maggie O’Farrell–After You’d Gone; The Hand That First Held Mine; I Am, I Am, I Am Liane — Read More
When the muse drops by and you’re like, “I’m busy”
Most creative types know that a visit from the ever-elusive muse is a welcome and wonderful thing. You can’t always control when inspiration strikes. It comes and you take advantage of it because you don’t know when it will come again. Unless you’re busy. Then it might not be realistic to strike while the proverbial — Read More
The beat goes on
The little one is napping, so here I am. One of the most humbling things about motherhood (and there are lots of humbling things) is admitting that I have so much less control over my schedule. I used to pride myself on my productivity. I would wake up with a specific to-do list and if I — Read More
Books I read in 2017
It’s that time of year again, time to look back at my year of reading. Last year, I read 78 books. This year? 81! You can scan the covers, or peruse the full list below. What were some of your favorite reads of 2017? Good ol’ fiction: The River at Night by Erica Ferencik The — Read More
While you were sleeping: A letter to my daughter
Dear Mya, You’re napping in your swing, finally. Usually by the time we get you to nap, you need to eat again. I have 10 minutes to write this before the inevitable hunger cry commences. It’s been a rough few days. We’ve all had a cold. I got my first round of edits for Cherry — Read More
Women writing men
My next novel, Cherry Blossoms, has a male narrator. I didn’t plan to write a story with a man’s voice; it just came to me that way. This story, like most of my stories, started with one line: “I have eight months to live.” And the character saying that line in my head just happened — Read More
Book #2 is coming!
I am excited to announce that my second novel will be published by Turner Publishing around this time next year! The book is titled Cherry Blossoms. I started it back in 2009, abandoned it for years, and finished it as part of my 100-day writing challenge a few months ago. I have always loved this story — Read More
Brave new world
I have been meaning to write a post to let you know that I had my baby but having a baby doesn’t allow much time for things like writing blog posts. At the moment, she is in the swing next to me, awake but content. I am learning to take advantage of these moments. Her — Read More
Motherhood and writing
I’m 37 weeks pregnant, so I’ve been doing a lot of thinking on this subject. How will being a mom affect my writing? I know I will have way less time and will need to learn to maximize free moments even more than I do now. But, beyond schedule and logistics, will the stories I’m drawn — Read More
100-day writing challenge: Complete
Annnnd, just like that, 100 days have passed. When I started this thing, my intention was to write every single day for 100 days. After all, that’s what I did when I undertook this challenge back in 2013. This time, I wasn’t as strict. I used the challenge more to motivate me to stick to — Read More