In today’s Writers in the Trenches interview, we tackle a genre we haven’t discussed before in detail – historical fiction. Joan Schweighardt’s new novel, Gifts for the Dead, takes place in the early 20th century in Hoboken, NJ. It’s the…
Writers in the Trenches: Poet Alison Stone Talks Two New Books
In one of her answers to my questions below, poet Alison Stone talks about poems having “two images or stories that play off each other and add up to more than the sum of the parts.” In a funny way, our…
Book 2 in the Stray Cat Stories Children’s Book Series is On the Way…
My amazing illustrator, Laurel McKinstry Petersen, is working hard on some beautiful illustrations for TRIBBS: THE HANDSOME CAT (Based on a True Story). We’re working hard to try to get this book in your child’s hands by the holidays! I’ll…
When You Have to Leave to Come Back: Honoring My Own Voice
The early mornings are cooling off in Boston. For a time in July it was too hot to sit out behind our house with a cup of hot coffee in the mornings. That’s changing now; I can enjoy a little…
New Interview with Five Directions Press
Many thanks to Five Directions Press and Joan Schweighardt for publishing a new interview with me in their online newsletter. Joan asked me about my strategies for fitting a writing life into a 9-5 working life (not easy) and about…
Writers in the Trenches: Packing a Suitcase — and Marketing A Book — with Ellie Dias
I first “met” Ellie Dias (we’ve actually never met in person) when she was signed on to the same publisher that published my memoir-in-essays, Message From a Blue Jay. The authors published by that wonderful independent press, Buddhapuss Ink, tended…
Poem for Honey, the dolphin left alone in a shuttered aquarium in Japan
Honey I rememberthe sun on my skin. I remember the otherswho called to me,cared for me.I frozewith fearwhen the boats surrounded us,flailed a good-bye through the blood of my mother. How strange to pingwallspainted blue.How strange to swim circles,and dancefor…
Writers in the Trenches: Scott Hilton Davis brings Yiddish Stories to an American Audience
I was introduced to the work of Scott Hilton Davis by Dr. Erika Dreifus, author of the short story collection Quiet Americans and an advocate for writers and Jewish literature. Erika guessed I’d be interested in Davis’ work, and she…
New Year’s Eve
It’s New Year’s Eve. In a few hours the clock will strike midnight on the East Coast, and 2018 will join the line of the years that went before it, marching slowly into memory and history. In some parts of…
A quick video of a little fan reading Little White
So heartwarming and sweet! Nothing touches a writer’s heart more.