“At work, you think of the children you have left at home. At home, you think of the work you’ve left unfinished. Such a struggle is unleashed within yourself. Your heart is rent.” — Golda Meir I suspect that it’s easier to find authentic novels about the difficulty of being a daughter or son than down-and-dirty … Read more
In the weeks before my debut novel released, I resembled a child anticipating her jump from single digit birthdays to the doubles: 10! I could barely sleep—my husband groaned as I slipped out of bed at 4 in the morning. I ignored him and crept away, sneaking off to self-google in privacy. As I waited … Read more
Everyone has something that keeps them going when nothing else will do. For some it’s cupcakes. Others choose wine. My husband has football. I have beauty magazines. I’m not exactly sure where I get my make-up, hair product, fragrance, and clothes jones. Partially from my mother, who could transform herself in miraculous ways between walking … Read more
I’m wiggling back into my new novel, and like many complicated tasks—knitting a sweater for an elephant, cooking a gluten-free banquet for four hundred vegans—I need to regain my rhythm and whack my way through the awful stage where everything I write sounds like this: Blah, blah, blah. See Spot run. Yada, yada, yada. Barreling … Read more
“In the airport, coming home from vacation, he stops at a kiosk and buys grapefruits, which he arranges to have sent to his daughters. They will stumble over the crates waiting on their porches, when they get home from his funeral.†Thus opens this stark and haunting memoir, written in prose that surrounded me like … Read more