I have never met Erika Dreifus in person, but I feel as if I know her. That may be because we’ve communicated quite a lot in recent years about writing and book-related news. We are connected by certain things; my…
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…
Every interview in this series is unique and provides insight into a writer who is working on craft. Some interviewees have had many publications in literary journals, some none. Some have published books, others haven’t. Some I know personally, and…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…