Five years ago, right around this time, the world began to fold in on itself like origami. I’ve seen a lot of people posting their memories about it, so I thought I’d add mine. At the end of February and start of March 2020, my husband and I drove down to Disneyland for a long weekend to enjoy the Food
Four years ago today, I received the email that broke me. I know the agent did not intend to ruin my life, but the stress fractures had already formed after years of writing and querying and getting close but never quite landing where I wanted to be. The email read: You have written a solid manuscript that was a delight
I grew up in the 1980s, and there were three movies that were key to any sleepover when I was a kid: You needed at least two of these for a sleepover to be a success. But if Blockbuster (or that one grocery aisle that had movies you could rent) didn’t have them, there were acceptable alternatives: (I realize Clue
Sure, there’s another week left in 2024, but I can’t imagine what could happen to change my feelings about the year in general. It was a bad one for me. I barely wrote and didn’t publish anything. I was asked to run for the local school board then backstabbed by the people who encouraged me to get involved in the
I’ve seen a Jack Prelutsky poem circulating on Bluesky, and… I want to like it. I want to like his work. I used to like it—love it, even—but as the saying goes, “Don’t meet your heroes.” I grew up… not poor, exactly, but we didn’t have excess for anything unnecessary. When Prelutsky’s book The New Kid on the Block came
Two days ago, I posted a book review of Matthew McConaughey’s Greenlights on my YouTube channel. Reading the book (and reviewing it) necessarily made me think about my time on film sets, which of course made me think of interning for Lynda Obst. The very next day—yesterday—I saw the headline that Lynda had passed away. She was young; the same
Although the year is not quite over, it’s about time to start wrapping things up and examining what worked, what didn’t, and how to move forward. I intend to do this in bits and pieces by looking at different aspects of my life through the year. Naturally, I’ll start with my writing. Releases It’s difficult to believe I actually started
What did I accomplish in 2021? Well, I released a couple books. Went on a couple family vacations (remember those?). And tried to make peace with my health. In spring of 2021, our schools reopened with a reduced schedule. Kids who wanted to continue learning from home could do so, but all three of our kids wanted to go back.
Years ago, when I was feeling bad about my lack of success as a writer, I made a timeline of my writing history to remind myself of how far I’d come. I don’t know where that timeline is now, or even what software I used to make it, but I do still find looking back at my journey gives me
Prefer video? View my 2020 Reading Wrap-Up on YouTube. Yes, there are still a few weeks left in the year, but the chances I will finish reading another book in that time are slim to none. So I don’t think it’s premature to look back at my year in books. This year, I read 62 books, fewer than the 81