How to write a book: little steps each day until it’s done
My first book, a middle grade novel in verse, was written in tiny fifteen- or twenty-minute windows, back when my kids were very young. I had a newborn, two 3-year-olds (twins—so double trouble), a 5-year-old, a 6-year-old, an 8-year-old, and not a lot of...
Superb fiction, mysteries, and a heartwarming show
1. Reading: I recently finished Karah Sutton’s magical middle grade debut, A Wolf for a Spell, and it was delightfully enchanting! Full of magic and wolves and Baba Yaga and love and the power of community. I couldn’t wait to share it with my eight-year-old...
Don’t put off living until you’re ready
There comes this moment, before every big event in my life, where I have wondered, Am I ready for this? Is this the right thing? It’s not a gentle wondering, either. It’s a loud, hot, cold, hot, cold, numb, hot hot hot kind of wondering. A spiral of wondering that...
How do you balance multiple projects?
At any given time, I’m working on between three and five manuscripts. Some people’s jaws drop when they hear a thing like that (probably because the average person can hardly imagine working on one manuscript!). Maybe it’s a leftover consequence of my decade in...
Romance, reality, and a fantastic Netflix horror show
1. Reading: I recently finished the YA book, My Eyes are Up Here, by Laura Zimmerman, and it was SO GOOD! It was funny, emotional, fun, and romantic and raised awareness about an important issue with access—namely, how big-breasted young women can’t find clothes...
What are you putting out into the world?
The idea of karma is an ancient idea. Even when I was a kid, I was familiar with the saying, “What goes around comes around.” The saying served two purposes back then: first, to get me to think about what I was doing that might come back around to haunt me (which was...
How to set goals when so much is beyond your control
As much as we like to think we have everything under our control (or maybe that’s just me), there’s a lot that’s out of our control, especially when it comes to writing. Sometimes kids get sick and writing time disappears. Sometimes there’s a freak snowstorm in Texas...
Birds, roses, and feminism on the screen
1. Reading: I recently finished (and totally loved) Sandy Stark-McGinnis’s Extraordinary Birds, about a girl in foster care who dreams of flying and the journey she takes into self love, acceptance, and trusting the people in her life, after her early trust was broken...
On making goals for the new year
Do you make goals for your new year? I’m one of those people who takes the last couple of weeks of the old year so she can look forward to the brand-new slate of a new year and dream and make goals and plan on the next year’s calendars she bought back in July. I look...
How to collect ideas
Since you’re having such a wonderfully imaginative September, I wanted to send a short-ish note about collecting ideas. Collecting ideas, for me, is incredibly important. I don’t ever want my ideas to slip through my unprepared fingers. But we’ve all been there:...
