It appears that GoDaddy.com did some royal messing up of my website. It’s as if I’ve gone back in time; what you’re seeing is a year-old version without any of the blog posts or content I uploaded since the fall…
Writers in the Trenches: Dr. Erika Dreifus Publishes First Poetry Collection

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…
Writers in the Trenches: Novelist Joan Schweighardt, a “master of historical fiction”
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: Memoirist and Essayist Michael Steinberg on His New Book

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…
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…