I’ve been wanting to blog more about Tanglewood Terror and the themes buried in it like mycelial cords. Laurel Snyder issued a pretty good challenge to start with his parents’ divorce/separation, which is part of Eric’s story and part of Rebecca’s story in Laurel’s Bigger than a Breadbox, which comes out in a week or two. Continue reading
It can be surprisingly hard to describe your own book. As Neil Gaiman wrote (I’m pretty sure it was Neil Gaiman), the only way to describe a story is to tell the story. That’s true, but you can’t always pull out a manuscript and read the whole thing when somebody asks, “what’s it about?” Continue reading
I was recently at the bookstore looking for board books for my son, and left feeling thwarted and disheartened. It was all barnyard animals making noises and counting and going to bed on time. It was light, light stuff. I left empty handed. Continue reading
People ask me about getting published. Usually they are asking for themselves, but sometimes they’re asking for a friend or family member — somebody who’s written a memoir or a family history. The stories are always worth telling. Friends who braved war zones to help children, a grandparent’s diary of farm life in early 20th Century Minnesota, a father’s battle with and victory over cancer. Other times it’s a novel or a collection of stories. It’s commendable to have written something personal and meaningful, courageous to share it with others, and touching that a loved one wants to validate that work by seeing it into print. Continue reading
One of the most frequent questions I get asked is about how I write when I have a day job… a question I’ll get even more now that I have a child. Continue reading
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