2021 Wrap Up

Every year I do a quick summary of what I've accomplished in my writing career and sometimes what I've accomplished in life. It's a great way to look back and realize I actually *have* been pretty busy, no, I *wasn't* slacking as much as I thought, and hey, this year wasn't so bad. (Covid and [...]

Holding Patterns

How do you begin a blog post you never wanted to write? How do you type the very words you never wanted to see again? How do you convince yourself that there's anything good or fair or right in the world when you get the news that your loved one has cancer? Again. I don't [...]

Belonging

We almost bought a brand new house today. Drove an hour and a half northeast and spent all day touring a beautiful, half-built, small mansion in a spacious 1-acre wooded lot in the Poconos. Then we deliberated long hours on whether it was right, where we'd put the garden, the pool, the chicken coop, and [...]

Privilege

Not going to lie. The banning of a certain someone from social media this week has me letting out a breath I didn't know was holding. (I'm a YA author. You knew I had to use that phrase eventually, right?) There is still so much work to be done to right our listless ship of [...]

Fledgling

Every writer knows one of the very best feelings in the world is the moment a shiny, new idea takes shape in your head, and you can't shake it. And when that shiny, new idea involves collaborating with your 14-year-old kiddo, it's even better. A few months ago, my very artistic and talented daughter had [...]

Family, Life, and Things that Matter

I missed March, April, and most of May on the blog. I bet you can all guess why. Wow. What a heck of a year so far. Global pandemic, hundreds of thousands dead, and so many people refusing to do something as simple as wear a face mask to protect themselves and others. It's mind-boggling. [...]

Ingenious Inventions & Fearless Creators

I love art in all its forms. Paintings, sculptures, books, theater, movies? You name it, I can appreciate the work that went into creating it! So naturally I tend to align with other artists in our pursuit of making real the images from our minds. One such artist is one my very best and most [...]

The Girl Who Fell

We just returned from our trip to Prince Edward Island and, friends, I have fallen. I have fallen deeply, madly in love. All vacations are lovely, but none of them have ever left me with a desire to relocate my entire family as soon as humanly possible. I loved the Bahamas and Jamaica. England and [...]

The Value of One Year

Can you measure the worth of a year? How do you set the price? In dollars? In euros? In pesos? Can you put a price on it at all? When you get a cancer diagnosis, you find out just how much your time with loved ones is really worth, and just how much more of [...]